


The Witching Hour

by xlilim



Series: Blood Magic, Bone Flower [1]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Aztec Gods, Background Relationships, Blood Magic, Blood and Violence, Bullying, Children, Death Rituals, Emotional Manipulation, F/M, Fantasy, Fate & Destiny, Flashbacks, Human Sacrifice, Implied Relationships, Large Cast, Love Triangle, Magic, Marriage, Marriage of Convenience, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Original Character, POV Third Person, Post-Turn Back the Pendulum Arc, Pre-Canon, Pregnancy, Prophecy, Psychic Abilities, References to Aztec Religion & Lore, Rituals, Romance, Sexual Content, Shapeshifting, Torture, Tragedy, Unrequited Love, Violence, Witches, Wolves, abilities
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-24
Updated: 2019-05-29
Packaged: 2020-01-25 16:53:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 16
Words: 50,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18578635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xlilim/pseuds/xlilim
Summary: Hisame Kazuye has spent decades tortured and imprisoned by her own people when Aizen Sosuke offers her freedom in exchange for her service to his plans. Accepting presents a new shot at freedom, even if that means abiding by his whims and escaping near-death at every turn, but with a soft heart and a long history with a man she idolized, she faces unforeseen obstacles. (Crossposted from FF.Net and WP.)





	1. The Witch

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!
> 
> I figured it was time to slowly migrate more of my stories over to this page. This story has been crossposted from my fanfiction page, [here](https://www.fanfiction.net/~xlilim), and I believe it also has a few chapters in my wordpress page.
> 
> That said, it's going to take me some time to post all the chapters on here.
> 
> * The Witching Hour is the first part of the Omixochitl series, which is in turn the first installment of the Blood Magic, Bone Flower series.

Footsteps approached. Her feathers rustled. A shiver strummed down her skeleton like a club bumping the bones in a discordant song that made ears bled. The prison walls contained her, inscribed on their pale faces were towers of symbols and words that weaved the spellwork upon the mineral that had dulled her senses.

_He returned!_ The air pulsed under her wings as she took flight in frenzied excitement, but touched down on the stone ground once more, her large, curved talons clicking upon contact.

"Shinji?"

Her voice echoed back to her, chittering as it pushed through the crisscrossing barrier in front of the wooden bars.

"Is that you?"

_No._ She stilled. _The weight of this spiritual pressure…_

Her sharp amber gaze pierced the darkness as he emerged illuminated by the orb-shape lantern her carried on the end of a short rod. Shadows burned into his skin, outlining the sharp edges of his jaw, darkening the brown of his hair to that of ground coffee beans, and the light produced a glare across his square glasses obscuring the soft brown shade of his eyes as they cast judgment upon her small, feathered form.

"It's been a while, hasn't it, Hisame Kazuye?" asked Aizen Sōsuke.

She noticed he wore a white haori over his pitch-black shihakusho and her feathers bristled in recognition of his new rank. "Where is Shinji?"

"Are you still squawking for him?"

Kazuye flung herself to the bars separating them, the spellwork burning at her talons as feathers fell from her limbs until she tumbled to the ground a pile of small bones. They rattled as she reassembled, growing in her skeleton, forming organs and blood vessels, creating muscle and bronzed skin to shield it, hair sprouted from her head black and wild, her eyeballs came together like white and green confetti, returning to their original state.

The prison burned with the stench of her charred remains as she stood before Sōsuke, a foot shorter, but a fully-formed. Her human limbs felt strange to repossess. She had grown used to feather and talons and to the slow crouch of padded paws and a lithe spotted body made it easy to roam in her confinement as though she were stalking prey.

"Your power is fascinating to behold," he said, his voice as smooth as poison sliding down her throat. "Even sealed within all of this spellwork and sekkiseki stone, you continue to grow."

"You left me here," Kazuye hissed. "Lie to me, Sōsuke, say that you did not put me in this prison."

"Is that what you believe?" he asked. "Do you think that I betrayed you?"

"Were you ever loyal?"

He chuckled.

Kazuye paced a straight line, tearing her gaze from his mocking smile, and repeated his words in a mumbled stream of abhorrence. She sensed her control slipping as though it were the ribbon wrapped around a gift box being pulled apart by the ends. Her skin trembled. Every cell in her body rioted, gathered, and reconfigured their constitution. Rosettes rose to the surface of her flesh, blooming into clusters around the darkening spots.

The castors that verbalized the incantations carved upon the walls imprisoned her by using her own power against her and dulled her abilities by reflecting them back onto her. The more indestructible she became, the easier it was for the cell to adapt—challenging her with her own might until it succeeded in crossing all of her wires. The little spiritual energy she hoarded escaped her body because the walls were made from _sekkiseki_ stone and they absorbed her reiryoku constantly.

She had lost track of time. Unaware of how many weeks had passed since she entertained her last visitor. How long ago had it been that she lost the ability to retain human shape? That becoming one of many creatures was easier than to stand on her own two feet? How many times had she slammed into the bars, her body exploding into chunks of burnt flesh and warm blood?

How many years had she waited for Sōsuke to release her? After he had taken her hand long ago and raised her up, saying, _"Come with me."_

"I loved you," spat Kazuye. "I would have done anything for you—given up every limb for you. I would've died a thousand deaths for you. Whatever you wanted, I would've given."

"I am aware," he said, observing her internal battle with strange fascination. "However, admiration weakened you—desperate for love and attention, desperate for recognition and protection, and desperate to be saved. I had no need for a child at my side."

"Fortune has blessed you with these barriers or I'd rip your skin from your bones," snapped Kazuye, her jaw aching from the sharpening of her teeth. "You want a puppet, one that would rally the nahualli[2] to your side and I will not be controlled."

"Do you wish to protect the witches?" asked Aizen, pausing. "After all that they did to you? Do you know why you are here? Fear. People fear you because they cannot understand you." Each patient word was calculated and dripping with charm. "The _Tlaminqui_ School[3] incident with the Akram boy, the Sayegh Queen's funeral, and the Shisou Project[4] troubles that you stirred—each one was a phenomenal display of your gifts. Each one instilled fear in those around you. They were unable to fathom how anyone could have so much power."

"Don't pretend to understand me."

He chuckled. "Am I not the only one that can understand you? Was that not what you said to me once?"

Her rage stirred. She shouldn't have expected any less from this man when she had given him all the ammunition he could ever hope to use against her. She idolized him. Spoke to him in confidence, seeking counsel, and divulged every chamber in her heart because he listened. He _pretended_ to understand when he wanted only to use her power.

"Take control of your life again and come with me," he propositioned. "Use your power—all of your gifts."

He snatched her attention.

"Do what you will, however you chose to do it, but do it at my side." He paused, reading her expression as much as the glow of his lantern allowed and it was possible he knew her answer before she said it aloud. "We can help each other."

Kazuye's eyes narrowed. Agreeing was falling into the palm of his hand once more, but…

To leave this place. Not even Shinji had given her hope in ever doing so. She never entertained it because the queen herself had made certain that her sentence could not be lifted. People had died because of her.

Temptation boiled, stronger than suspicion. What was the worst he could do to her? Throw her back into this prison made specifically for her? And she would live a thousand years until another came to set her free or however long it took for her to understand it enough to destroy it.

"So be it."

Satisfaction brightened in his eyes, but there was no way for her to know the reason behind it. She lived better days not trying to figure out what went through his head.

"When your queen comes, do what you are skilled at."

He turned to leave.

She stepped forward, a new emotion rising from the pit of her stomach at the number emblazoned over the back of his captain's haori.

"Where's Shinji?" she shouted, hesitating when she reached the bars. The powerful vibrations the complex spellwork emitted left her wary after she had experienced death. Although it had been a quick and almost painless one, the clatter of her bones as her own magic pulled them together at the base of her being, the regrowth of her organs and flesh was painful, like being born in reverse.

He paused, looking over his shoulder. "He's dead."

The bones in her legs began to splinter and she fell to the ground holding herself, pushing her fingernails into her skin to maintain control. "What about Souko?" she cried, the tips of her wild hair entangled into spotted feathers. "What happened to Souko?"

He continued to walk despite her shouting and she succumbed to her uncontrolled magic, resetting her shape.

* * *

It took seventy agonizing hours to burst free of her feathered prison and fifty minutes to drag her body across the cold stone to a patch of warmth to rest. She haggard breaths, her body aching from having broken and reshaped into that of a human, when the spiritual energy tethering her skin in place pinged with the distortion of a new visitor.

Another familiar energy pooled at her feet. It spread like the cold of winter used to as it began, seeping in through the bottom of the shoji screens in her childhood room. It wrapped around her like cool chains snaking up her legs and pinned her in place.

" _Cihuapillahtocatzintli._ _ **[5]**_"

Two figures materialized from the darkness welcoming light with their presences. The tallest of the two tugged the hood off her head and her black hair spilled like a toppled inkwell down her back. A high-collared handmade jade necklace shone brightly in the glow of light fanned out across her dark skin.

She pinned Kazuye down with her strong golden gaze. "What did you do, Hisame Kazuye?"

Kazuye's skin tingled as she rose, poised like a jaguar on the brink of attack. "Why are you here, _cihuapillahtocatzintli?_ "

The cloaked guard at the queen's side stomped forward and hissed, "Her majesty asked you a question!"

She looked past the unthreatening guard. "What could I do from here? You don't think this cage is strong enough to keep me in? _Your majesty_ , I'm flattered."

The Akram Queen, Tono Sumika, grimaced. "The Central 46 is pressuring the Council of Elders for a retrial." She paused, stabbed into her with her ruthless spiritual pressure, not in the least bit concerned for the wellbeing of her companion, who struggled under the massive weight of power vibrating through the building. "What did you do, Hisame Kazuye?"

Kazuye kissed the ground under the monstrous spiritual pressure and balled her hands into fists, the ends of her fingernails pressing crescents into her palm. "I have done nothing!"

"Lies!" The queen's voice echoed and Kazuye sensed the sputtering of the barriers as they came undone with the rattle of keys.

The overbearing pressure slammed into Kazuye hard, crushing her into the ground as Sumika moved to her.

"Your majesty, you shouldn't—"

Kazuye caught a glimpse of the queen's guard as she was hurled back into a wall, her small body flattened against the stone and slid to the ground misshapen and bloody.

The queen snatched Kazuye by the neck and raised her high above her head, her sharpened nails punctured Kazuye's flesh with the precision of a needle. Blood soaked into Kazuye's plain white robe, red lines of it twisting along the shape of her. Pain rippled through her as if she were the conductor of an electrical current, spreading wildly from her neck and sparking every nerve in the rest of her body.

"What did you do?" the queen demanded, a harsh wrinkle formed between her eyebrows. Her face twisted in a familiar fury, one that had once hexed Kazuye until the skin began to rot off her body.

Kazuye wheezed out a response. Her lungs ached as if doused in accelerant and set on fire.

The woven spellwork began to disappear after the queen disrupted their magic, so Kazuye's wounds were slow to repair, but still, they depleted what little energy she had remaining. This cage had been designed to use her own power against her and it had been an excruciating realization for her years ago, but it meant that it was the only way to keep her in.

Sumire flung Kazuye to the ground and buried her heeled boot between her ribcage. Each crippling blow that followed grew heavier, broke three ribs, pushed one piece far into her lung that left her choking in her own blood. Every stomp of the queen's booted foot weighed twice as much as the last. This fury-driven display of physical power would end when it stamped Kazuye from existence.

Kazuye drowned a thousand times in her own blood, returning from the brink with every spark of spiritual energy.

With the barriers' magic fading fast, Kazuye welcomed the gentle cold of death. A couple of more drownings and she would please the witches across every realm.

Kazuye clung on until the Akram Queen was dragged off her and a group of healers surrounded her to accelerate the reparations already underway.

"I hope you rot in here, you unholy beast," Sumire spat. She shoved the hands that reached for her with a hiss. "Do not touch me."

Kazuye's hazy vision focused on the furious queen, revitalized by the spellwork that returned her from the brink. Her teeth red, mouth dripping blood, as she chuckled. "Are you afraid of me still, Tono Sumika?"

A younger woman that shared the same angled features as the queen stopped Sumika from another frenzy. "Do you not see what she is doing, your majesty? She's provoked you into guaranteeing her release! After this, the Central 46 will not allow her to remain in our custody!"

Kazuye lifted her eyes to the ceiling, her body engulfed by the blue healing light of the nahualli surrounding her. She drank deep of the warm, nurturing glow of their fingers, hungry for the energy that powered their spell. "It is not what I did, Sumika. It's is what you have done."

* * *

Kazuye welcomed the chief of the Winterbloom Order when he stepped forward with a round silver key twirling in one of his long, bony fingers. He dispelled the barriers with a wave of his hand and the chain-link of spellwork came undone with the ease of his command, but he alone did not create this prison.

"Lady Hisame," greeted Akizuki Yuuto, offering her a brilliant smile that brightened his amber-colored eyes. His light blue hair fell from behind his ears, the longer strands covering one of his eyes. "I overheard it took more than five sessions to heal you after you insulted the queen. You're as charming as ever, it seems."

Kazuye smiled at the faded brilliance of the magic as it melted into the shadows. "The incarcerating spellwork is fascinating, Chief Akizuki." She watched him sink onto one knee in front of her, digging for a black collar from inside the sleeve of his black haori. "It makes use of my talent for Deconstruction as well as my ability to Shift, doesn't it?"

"Oh? Have you figured it out?" asked Yuuto, securing the collar tight against her brown neck.

"The sekkiseki stone dulls my senses and eats away at my reiryoku, but you understood that that alone wouldn't be enough to control me. You did more." Kazuye rose to her feet with him as he watched her with eyes full of curiosity. "So, the barriers are designed to turn my perception against me because you understand the nature of my abilities, or at least you think that you do."

Yuuto hummed appreciatively. "I always believed you had a big imagination."

Kazuye smiled at his compliment.

Yuuto took her wrists, his touch gentle, and bound them together in front of her. He tied a cord to the center of bindings to guide her out of the prison. "How many gifts were you blessed with, Lady Hisame?"

"Seven," she said, careful with every syllable she pushed past her lips, "just like any shaman-class nahualli."

"Don't play coy. Deconstruction and Reconstruction are both Zahir abilities. We both know that we get one per different Witchlines and we can only develop more powers within our own. It's like having a certain affinity for a specific type of magic."

"Ah, yes, but you're smarter than that. Knowing one, you can know the other. If you can take apart something, you have to know how to do it, and that simple knowledge is key to putting it back together. Of course, I'm better at destroying than I am at fixing things, just as you are good at science."

"Well, you're not wrong, but not everyone is capable of understanding such intricacies."

Kazuye expected more nahualli to have gathered and escort her to the Central 46 Chambers. "Only you today?"

"You've been in here for almost two decades, it'd be shocking if I alone wouldn't be enough to handle you. I'm a chief, Lady Hisame."

"Well, nobody is doubting your ability but yourself."

He guided her through the underground labyrinth until they reached a heavily guarded door covered in ancient runes even she had never seen before. Past them was a void of darkness that oozed at their feet and with a snap of Yuuto's fingers he sparked an orb of light that drifted upward, aimless into the dark, dividing it into a path high with stairs. She had entered the prison, listening to her heaving echoing in her throbbing mind, and with a blindfold knotted tight behind her head.

The sunlight was blinding and the cold that seemed to cling to her flesh causing goosebumps, warmed slightly by the rays. It took her several blinks to make out the horizon from the gargantuan gate into the pyramid of Itzintlan[6] but Ilhuicatl[7] looked like a glittering heaven—gorgeous and unattainable. Stone apartment complexes built high and in overlapping clusters with narrow white roads zigzagging under the shade of an assorted fruit trees—apple, peach, plum, mulberry—as far as one could behold.

Members of the Zakuro Squad[8] patrolled the streets around the base of the pyramid, their eyes dark and their lips curled into snarls, as Kazuye walked a step behind Yuuto. She glimpsed once more at the gateway to the underground prison flanked by stone snake heads with jade stone eyes and exhaled as she returned her gaze forward to the emptied-out streets leading to the exit into Seireitei. She breathed in the sweet fragrance of blossoming trees mingling with the thick, smoky scent of frankincense, cinnamon, and dried herbs. If she closed her eyes, allowing Yuuto to navigate alone, and concentrated beyond the nahualli, she sensed the citizens far from her as though they were tiny, flickering flames about to snuff out.

"It's a beautiful day, Lady Hisame."

"I used to climb the tallest building in Fifth Division when I was a child to catch a glimpse of Ilhuicatl," she said, opening her eyes. The apples were almost ready for harvest. She tasted a tinge of their sweetness in the crisp breeze. "I wasn't allowed in the city."

"Was your transfer the first time you set foot in Ilhuicatl?" asked Yuuto.

"Yes."

The nahualli city was encased by high walls and protected with a barrier that Kazuye heard had been erected by her great-grandparents back when the city was new and comprised of a few buildings. She used to wonder if its history was the reason as to why she felt drawn to the city because her family's magic was prevalent there. A powerful witch's magic could remain active for years and her great-grandparents' spellwork had withstood two millennia, though she sensed where it had been stitched together by the spiritual energies of thousands of nahualli.

This city was hers and yet it wasn't. Its lively sights and sounds were foreign to her, but the smells were familiar. Frankincense and copal reminded her of her grandmother's shrine to Quetzalcoatl[9] taking up the space of the tokonoma in a six-tatami mat room in her childhood home. Her heart ached.

Yuuto guided Kazuye to the gate into the Central 46 Compound and turned to her after announcing their arrival. "Not all of us are afraid of you, Lady Hisame."

He held a hand out to her, palm up, fingers curled inward. She stared at it, then lifted her eyes to his face, and placed her hand above his, hesitating. She clapped her hand against his and a surge of energy shot in her through the brief contact of their skin and set her circulatory system ablaze, re-energizing her weakened body.

He winked. "Don't use it all at once."

Kazuye tightened her hand into a fist and stepped past him toward the masked man awaiting to take her the rest of the way. She didn't turn back to look at Yuuto, though she had felt tempted by the flame of hope coursing through her, calling forth her dulled abilities like a beacon guiding her through the dark.

At the entrance into the main chambers where she would face the members of the Central 46, Kazuye closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. It had taken every chief in the Zakuro Squad and their adjutants to cage her and drag her inside for her final trial. The Akram Queen and the Council of Elders had deemed her a threat. She had been framed, forced into a situation in which she would lose control and she did. She fell for it. She had sensed the tethers snapping one at a time against the swell of her power and she tasted her wish on her tongue, hitting hard against the back of her teeth.

When she had swayed from the deep pull of the spellwork bursting from her body, she had made a final attempt to reel it in, but it had erupted. Thousands of people had been hurt, some succumbed to their wounds, the sacred barrier that surrounded the community had shattered, like a glass bowl hurled to the ground, and a huge crater had appeared where thousands of homes and the largest shopping district had once stood proud. Even Seireitei had felt her power rattle underneath it's surface, some had claimed that the tremors had extended far into Rukongai, but at that point, she had suspected them of saying more to damn her.

No one cared that she was provoked—pushed until the tempest inside of her grew too wild to control. The Central 46 had treated her as well as the Council of Elders had. _To think they would free me now._

Kazuye entered with her head up. The queen had already done the bulk of the work. This wouldn't be hard.

* * *

  **The Witch**. End

* * *

[1] **_Omixochitl_** is the Nahuatl word for the "tuberose." The literal translation of the word is "bone flower"— _omitl,_ 'bone,' and _xochitl_ , 'flower.' It is pronounced "Oh-mee-SHO-chit-ll." Don't forget to swallow that 'l' into the 't.' The tuberose is native to Mexico, and in the language of flowers, signifies dangerous pleasures and love.

[2] **_Nahualli_** , the Nahuatl word for "witch." It is pronounced "Nah-HWA-lee."

[3] The **_Tlaminqui_ School **refers to the five-year curriculum required of shaman and mystic-ranked nahualli to complete in order to join the **Zakuro Squad** or to transfer into the regular **Shinōreijutsuin** curriculum, in which they would need to finish two final years of study, to pursue jobs in the **Gotei 13** , **Kidōshū** , or the **Onmitsukidō**. _Tlaminqui_ is the Nahuatl word for "hunter" and it is pronounced "t-LAH-mean-key."

[4] **Shisou** , [死相](http://www.romajidesu.com/dictionary/meaning-of-%E6%AD%BB%E7%9B%B8.html), means "shadow of death."

[5] **_Cihuapillahtocatzintli_** is the Nahuatl word for "queen." It is pronounced, "Cee-HWA-pea-lah-toh-kat-seen-t-lee," probably.

[6] **Itzintlan** , or _foundation_ , is located in the center of Ilhuicatl. **Itzintlan** is the Nahuatl word for " _at its base_ " and it's pronounced " _eets-een-tlan_."

[7] **Ilhuicatl** is the nahualli city inside Seireitei. **Ilhuicatl** is the Nahuatl word for " _sky, heaven_ " and it is pronounced, _"eel-wee-kaht-l_."

[8] The **Zakuro Squad** is the fourth military branch of Soul Society. They deal with nahualli-related issues. Their insignia is a pomegranate blossom. 

[9] **Quetzalcoatl** , the feathered serpent is a central god in Aztec Mythology. He is the god of intelligence, self-reflection, and a patron of priests. He is the morning star. Quetzalcoatl created mankind. Quetzalcoatl is pronounced, " _ket-sal-coh-wat-ll._ " Swallow that _l_ little _t._


	2. No Family, No Friends, No Prospects, and No Power

The Prophetic Sisters spoke into the darkness—their voices an echo like the ripples on water—and foretold the coming of a witch before a small audience of high-ranking witches, among them the Sayegh Queen, Yamamoto Kano.

_"The gods will fight for her."_

The Sisters bore similar features: button noses, round heavily lashed green eyes, starlight-colored hair, and perfect deep brown skin highlighted by hundreds of candles burning in a half circle around them, like idols in the center of an altar.

_"She will rule alongside the Old God. The light to the shadows. Sun to the Moon."_

Each sister took her turn speaking, captivating the room with their soft intonations. This shining silver string they held between them—one knotting it, another reading the twisted ball, and the last articulating it. They switched roles at the end of every punctuating sentence, as the echo of their voices dissipated.

_"She will be damned and she will be blessed. Her birth is the coming of the end."_

The Sayegh Queen stepped forward, her platinum hair swept back into a neat braid, her gaze steady as she absorbed her proteges' prophecy, but her hand gripped her daughter's tight. The blond princess trembled, her other hand clenched over the swell of her belly.

Kazuye's grandmother, the queen, had told her that her mother was barren. That Kazuye had been a miracle.

_"The end will come of her."_

That was all the Akram Queen needed to start her fear-mongering campaign against an unborn child. It spooked Kazuye's mother half to death, enough to give her up after her birth. Thus, her imprisonment had started. First, thinly-veiled behind the image of a warm childhood home where she had lived with her dying grandmother after she had given up her crown, allowed to leave the house, but never able to cross the threshold of the property's gate. Next, a distant cousin had inherited her custody after her grandmother's death. Hirako Shinji had given her a warm home and fought for more liberties, but he had always held on tight to the ends of her chains. _Go far, but not so far that anyone would have reason to do worse than where you are._

But she had crossed the line, and the prison in which she had lived inside her entire life had become an actual cage. One that drained her, analyzed her abilities and used them against her, until she had lost track of time and forgotten her sense of being human. Even now her bones trembled, aching to change shape.

The Central 46 overturned her sentence. New witnesses testified in her favor—saying that she had been attacked and the power surge that had rattled Seireitei had been the result of self-defense—and went on to accuse the Council of threatening them into silence, which stirred trouble for the nahualli. The nahualli officially exiled her and responsibility for her fell on the Central 46, but she had no family to take her in or any money to start up again. Her last home had been with Shinji and according to Sōsuke, he was dead. She didn't believe him, but she also couldn't sense him in Seireitei.

Everything had changed. Kazuye had faced her judgment eagerly, but wore a somber expression. A decade earlier the same men behind their paper screens had sentenced her to life imprisonment. The matter of potential dangers to Soul Society fell to the Onmitsukidō, but Kazuye was a nahualli resident, which meant that she had to be deemed a threat by the Council first. Born on the wrong day, in the wrong year, under the wrong star, Kazuye had been doomed.

She lingered outside the Central 46 Compound, walking without destination, to feel the sun warm her skin. She listened to stray conversations and grew accustomed to the stares the longer she strolled Seireitei's immaculate streets. She planned to go to the places that she knew in the hopes of running into familiar faces, ones that might update her on what happened to Shinji and where Souko might be. Souko had been barred from visiting her in prison, but if she knew that her sentence was overturned, she would've come running, but nobody waited outside for her, at least not someone that wanted to be seen yet.

Perhaps, it was her imagination, but she felt followed. Someone stalked her shadow, taking advantage of her dull senses.

Kazuye paused in the middle of the street and turned. A lone man stood out from the few patrolling shinigami and she stepped in front of him, recognizing him as the silver-haired boy she had met in passing long ago. He towered over her now and wore the same fox grin she remembered as well as a lieutenant's armband over one arm.

"Ichimaru Gin, I take it you're Sōsuke's lieutenant."

"Bingo," he praised, mocking grin deepening. "So, you can guess who wants to see you?"

"What happened to Shinji?"

Gin shrugged his shoulders and changed their direction. "Dunno."

Kazuye's eyes narrowed. Gin didn't say Shinji died. She had a bad feeling about things.

Gin took her right to his captain's office. Familiar yet foreign under new ownership. She still felt traces of Shinji in its walls, but it was overbearingly Sōsuke's now.

Sōsuke sat behind the desk, his work completed and organized into neat stacks on one corner, and the fading aromatic fragrance of warm tea lingered from the empty ceramic cup on his desk. Books lined the shelves at his back with titles she had never seen before. The office smelled like him, the calm and soothing mixture of green tea and the crisp pages of books that she had once inhaled with her face pressed to his chest, her cheeks flushed red and her eyes puffy, and his arms wrapped around her, holding her with the gentleness one might cradle a wounded bird.

"How do you like your freedom, Lady Kazuye?" asked Sōsuke, lacing his fingers together in front of him.

"What did you do to Shinji?"

His deceptive smile never wavered. "What makes you think I did anything?"

She folded her arms across her chest. "Because I don't trust you."

"I do not have the luxury to indulge you today."

"Make time."

The silence spread between them like a noxious smoke, and even powerless, she stood firm against him, unafraid.

"Gin, you will have to take over drills for today, it would seem I have forgotten that I had a prior engagement," said Sōsuke, calm as still water, but she heard a needle of annoyance under the quiet current of his voice.

"Got it, cap'n." Gin exited the office with a playful wave at her. "Bye, Lady Hisame."

Kazuye leaned over his desk, palms planted firmly on its surface. "Now, tell me."

Sōsuke stood and walked around the desk to place a hand on the small of her back, his touch searing into the thin fabric of her white robe. "Come, we can have lunch, you need to restore your energy if you are to be of any help."

She jerked free of his guidance and stepped out of the office ahead of him, clenching her jaw.

Sōsuke invited her to _Okoya Sushi_ , a restaurant within the Fifth Sector that she frequented for years after Shinji had taken her in. The well-lit establishment seated forty, including twelve counter seats where three chefs prepared a variety of sushi before their customers' eyes in the open kitchen.

He sat across her in a booth and smiled politely at her as she ordered the entire menu. Once she went down the list, Kazuye met his gaze and asked, "And what will you have?"

The young woman scribbling their order on a small notepad with little room left on its surface smiled at the captain, her cheeks flushed pink. She emitted the sort of charm Sōsuke was better accustomed to—people fawning over him, their love and admiration for him secreted from their pores. It sickened her that she used to look at him the same. Shinji's kind lieutenant. He knew so much about the nahualli that it never occurred to her to question.

/

_"What does_ idol _mean?" asked Kazuye, sitting in a corner of the dojo behind Sōsuke who overlooked the zanjutsu training of Fifth Division's new recruits. She had her legs folded close to her chest, to prop her great-grandfather's electric blue grimoire open as she read, but she struggled with the language. Her great-grandfather wrote primarily in Nahuatl, but seemed to enjoy weaving in some Japanese, most of which she understood. It was the former she had trouble deciphering._

_Sōsuke regarded her patiently, crouching down next to her to look at the page. "An idol is an object of adoration," he told her. She wrote it down on a loose sheet of paper she held across the next page as she repeated his words and circled 'object of adoration.' Noticing this, he continued, "Think of it as something or someone that is loved."_

_"Something or someone loved." She scribbled it down as well, but remained confused by the term. "Okay."_

_"The idol mentioned in this verse"—he drew her attention to the word and slid his finger across the Aztec pictographs and glyphs on the page—"refers to someone that is worshipped."_

_"Worshipped." Kazuye lifted her eyes to his face and he smiled. She didn't have to ask him if he understood her language because she saw that he did. "Like Quetzalcoatl's shrine. Someone adored."_

_"Exactly. Just like a god."_

_"Do the shinigami have a god?" asked Kazuye, curious. Shinigami translated to gods of death or something to that effect. "Or are you gods?"_

_"No. We have a king. The Soul King." She noted a subtle change in his gaze as he stared down at her, but she wasn't seen. There was something beyond. "In a way, one could say that he is a god."_

_"The Soul King." Kazuye smiled at the wrinkled pages of her grandfather's grimoire. "I'd like to meet him."_

_"How interesting," he responded, "so would I."_

_"Maybe we could go together."_

_He placed a hand atop her head and it warmed her cheeks. "Your company would be very much appreciated, Lady Kazuye."_

\

Kazuye's stomach twisted. There were few patrons in the shop, but their light conversation filled the soothing restaurant ambience with their words as soft as whispers. Their booth sat in the furthermost corner of the establishment, out of the earshot of the group of shinigami enjoying a meal. She would've preferred a seat at the counter, but their pending conversation required privacy. The tall white paper lantern above the squared table hung low and cast their shadows long across the panel screens that encased them.

Their server returned with three full platters of colorful sushi and her mouth watered. How long had it been since she had feasted at _Okoya Sushi_? She had eaten mixed vegetable slop partnered with chicken broth and a half cup of water in prison. Once a day, every day, until it had grown bland on her tongue, her taste buds unable to distinguish one vegetable from another. What was once a carrot tasted more like lettuce, or were those deep green bits broccoli? _How many vegetables had they diced and mushed into this tasteless slop?_

She ate an oblong of tuna nigirizushi before the server had finished placing the platers down, the flavors melting on her tongue. She almost squealed with glee as she swallowed it down. She sampled all the different ones, relishing the slightly squishy texture of the _tako nigiri_ and enjoyed the _tamago nigiri_ one after another until there were none left on any of the platters.

She took her time with the _makizushi_ , the fish fresh and the nori crisp, and Sōsuke allowed her to eat undisturbed. Her stomach writhed, however, unable to stand the food after living years on half-rotting slop, but she didn't care if it made her sick. She scarfed it down. Sōsuke would betray her at the drop of a hat—as soon as she grew useless to his cause—and she planned to enjoy every second of her freedom until it truly became hers. For that required time and the patience to acquire it. She needed this man, too, no matter how much she wished she didn't.

"I have a proposition for you," he said halfway through her third platter.

She swallowed the food in her mouth. "What is it?"

"You are a social pariah with only a courtesy title attached to your name. You have no family, no friends, no prospects, or power." Every word pierced her heart and their poison oozed black in her bloodstream. "How do you expect to survive in a world that wants to erase your existence?"

Kazuye set her tuna roll back on her plate, her appetite waned. "Don't think I'll ask you for any help."

He chuckled. "I didn't expect you to. Nevertheless, I came up with a possible solution to your particular problem while considering our future involvement."

She arched an eyebrow. "If you're worried about your nice guy reputation, why don't you just use your ability to remedy everyone's perception when necessary?" He said nothing in response and she smiled, leaning over the table, dropping her voice low. "Don't tell me you haven't gained access to the nahualli to use your hypnosis on them?"

"You have supporters among the Zakuro Squad."

"Part of the freedom package was my official exile from the community."

"Do you plan to leave things as they are? You're the last of your Witchline, a princess of the nahualli, the strongest witch that your people have ever beheld in centuries. Will you allow them to trample all over your name? Is that what your grandmother would've have liked?"

She bristled. "My grandmother wanted me to lead a peaceful life."

"But you are not a creature of peace. The Sayegh are skilled destroyers and you are the best."

Her insides writhed like a nest of snakes. She relaxed the tension in her muscles and sank back into her seat. Her buttons were pushed and broken. "Fine, Sōsuke, you win, I'll bite." She folded her arms across her chest. "What do you have planned?"

"Something to ease the minds of everyone that shows concern over our soon-to-be frequent meetings."

Kazuye hated the implications in his words, but understood that it could become a problem. This well-to-do captain hanging around someone with the world's worst reputation. It wouldn't look right and before it upset her to think people were thinking badly of him because of her presence, but now it annoyed her that there would be people out there with the audacity to claim they were engaging in scandalous behaviors.

"I can only _Shift_ into animals I'm familiar with," she offered.

He laughed, his saccharine smile weaved into every word that formed on his lips. "No, Lady Kazuye, I was thinking something more official."

_Official?_ "Like?"

"Marriage."

She choked on her saliva. She drank deep of her cup of tea as he watched in amusement. "No."

"It isn't a bad offer. You will have a home and financial support as well as my good reputation to potentially outweigh yours. Consider why someone like me would marry someone like you."

Kazuye grimaced. She had no comeback. She had no home, no money, nobody to rely on but this unreliable man and his lackeys.

"Even if I agreed, the nahualli will not."

"All great romances triumph in the end, don't they?"

She had used those exact words when she bragged about the romance in her favorite novel, _Ito_ , to him.

"I believed that as a child." She gestured between them and added, "And we're not a romance."

"Consider it, and when you do, say yes."

Sōsuke called over their server and paid for their lunch. He rose from their booth and waited on her to walk past him before he followed, his eyes burning into the back of her head. They walked the streets without a word between them and her thoughts ran circles in her mind, the very core of her quivering.

"Where do you expect to stay tonight?"

She paused, turning to him, and startled. She stepped back, not expecting him to have been so close, and her heart leapt into her throat.

"I have no family, no friends, no power, and no prospects," she said, voice dripped venom, "where do you think I'll be staying?"

"That is what concerns me."

"Do you expect me to stay with you?" A wry smile shaped her lips, voice teasing as she pressed the tips of her fingers against his jaw. "Should I keep you company, Captain Aizen?"

"Would you like to?"

Her skin erupted in gooseflesh, and when she felt he back of his fingers brush against her wrist, it warmed like a new flame blown to life. Her tender heart weakened and she swallowed thickly, unable to stop herself from tracing up his jaw to the ends of his hair. She looked into his searching gaze and his unwavering smile as his hand cupped her face.

Kazuye closed her eyes and unconsciously pressed his hand closer, exhaling. She missed human warmth, the smell of flesh, the tough skin of his palm, and the certainty in its touch. She almost whispered his name, but jerked out of his grasp, her reiryoku coiling inside her and crackling outside her body, zapping a tiny creature that had drawn near. The spellwork that had controlled it all the way across Ilhuicatl to her exact location seeped into Kazuye's body. It tasted like the queen, bitter and a little past her expiration date.

She didn't even sense it until it was right next to her, but she thanked it for snapping her out of her trance.

"This is old news, Lady Kazuye," said Sōsuke. "Why are you afraid to be seen with me?"

She avoided his gaze. "I'm staying with Ichimaru," she said, stepping back ashamed of how easily she had fallen for old habits. _No, I just wanted to feel someone's hand on my skin, nothing more._ This would've happened with anyone, she reasoned, and so resolved to find that someone to ease her curiosity.

She started to turn and leave, but stopped. "I'm not afraid to be seen with you, I'd rather not be." His request thrust into the front of her thoughts, entangled with her confusion. "And what do you gain from this?"

"Your company." He smiled ever-so sweetly and her face betrayed a blush. "What else would I want?"

* * *

**No Family, No Friends, No Prospects, and No Power.** End

* * *

 


	3. Oh, Sweet Death of Mine

Kazuye soaked in the public bathhouse until her fingers pruned and dug through Sōsuke's clothes for anything that might fit her, but her frame was slight and she stood several inches shorter than him, which mean Gin's clothing wouldn't work either.

"The cap'n ain't gonna be too happy about the mess you left at his place," said Gin, observing her with his shoulder pressed to the door's threshold, his arms crossed over his chest and his grin ever-present. "Come on, you can borrow something of mine instead."

Kazuye stuffed the robes back into the drawer and pushed it in, the bundled fabrics sticking out. "He is doing this on purpose," she complained. "He gives me a proposition and doesn't bother to do anything other than buy me lunch."

"Is he supposed to?"

"Well, no." She frowned. "But it wouldn't kill him to."

"Well, you're welcome to crash at my place for as long as you'd like."

Kazuye wanted to take care of herself, not rely on anyone else as she had her entire life. But she had a promising future when Shinji had taken her in. She attended the Tlaminqui School in the Shinōreijutsuin and did well enough that people gossiped that she'd be a shoe-in with the Zakuro Squad, but she wanted to join the Kidōshū. The last thing that she had wanted was to join a military branch that cursed her very existence. At least with the Kidōshū, she would have anonymity.

"Thanks, I was planning to even if you didn't ask."

"Well, ain't that a shock."

"Sarcasm isn't cute, Ichimaru."

"I'm grateful you're so concerned with my appearance, Lady Hisame."

"Call me Kazuye, no honorific," she told him. "We're around the same age, right? We should get along."

"What an honor." It seemed there was no helping his tone. "Then you should call me Gin."

Kazuye paused. "Gin, could I try something with you?"

"Sure."

She took his hand and brought it to her face, though it held a certain warmth in it, it left her cold. She missed human warmth. Her heart didn't flutter and her skin didn't flush. No desire prickled across her skin, it only remained cold.

Human warmth was what she wanted.

She released his hand and stared at his face. Nothing. She patted his chest. "You're too young."

His grin widened. "You hitting on me?"

"Should I?"

"Nah, I don't want any problems with the cap'n."

Kazuye rolled her eyes. She found her way into Gin's room and went straight into his closet, tugging out the first robe that had an appealing pattern on it. He watched her from his post in front of the aperture of the sliding doors.

"Sōsuke has no say in my private life," she told him. "Things are not like that between us."

"What? But you were all googly-eyed for him when I was a kid."

Kazuye tugged on the robe and gestured Gin to help her with the obi. He walked up behind her and put his arms around her to take the obi from her, guiding her to tuck the extra fabric before he flattened the sash against her stomach.

"He doesn't care for anyone but himself and his ambition. That will never change."

"You sure about that? He went outta his way to get you out of prison."

"I'm a useful pawn."

"And you're okay with that?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "What do my feelings matter? I'm out of prison."

Gin chuckled. "I can see why he likes you."

"Why, you haven't even seen my magic at work." She mirrored his smile. "Or were you there when I was arrested?"

"Your spiritual pressure was no joke. It felt like my bones would splinter in half." Gin shuddered for effect. "There were plenty of folk knocked out thanks to you and the ones that weren't had to have been above Fifth Seat. But you weren't there to see what I saw."

"And what was that?"

"The look of utter joy on the cap'n's face when your spiritual pressure shook Seireitei."

She frowned. "Joy?"

"I've never seen him like that before."

He side-stepped out of the way to let her slide the door open.

"I want to drink," she announced, tugging her black hair over her shoulder to braid.

Gin took her to a rowdy local bar full of boorish Eleventh Division shinigami that had drunken themselves into petty verbal fights and boisterous off-key songs about fighting. Some had even stumbled out with their fists high, ready for a bout, and their noisy scuffle boasted of mostly uncreative, repetitive insults with very little bloodshed.

Kazuye had a shot of hard liquor and singled out a man from the group—the strongest one among them—and excused herself as she moved away from her seat next to Gin at the bar to approach him. His looks were decent and she cast his name away the instant he introduced himself, but she loved the way that he said her name.

He pulled her flush against the side of his larger body, his hand few inches from cupping her ass. "So, what brings a young lady like you all the way out here?"

His warmth seeped into her skin through the fabric of her robe. She hungered. No food would sate this craving. Not this.

"Take me back to your place and find out," she said, repressing her power from enveloping this stranger.

"Didn't you come in with Lieutenant Ichimaru?"

She arched an eyebrow, her eyes brimming with curiosity. "Do you want him to join us?"

"That how it is?"

"It's how you want it to be."

The man stood from his seat. "Let me take you home."

He guided her out of the bar with a hand on her back. Kazuye waved goodbye to Gin as she passed. Anyone remotely attractive and eager would've done it. The man hoisted her body up into his arms, her legs wrapped around his waist, and his hands explored her roughly, drawing pleasure from her. His touch was skilled and it promised satisfaction, but she wasn't interested in continuing as soon as his mouth began to search beyond her own lips to leave marks on her neck.

She pushed him away. She wanted human warmth. Laughable.

"I can't do this."

Kazuye fixed her crooked robe and exited.

The walk back to Fifth Division daunted her. Gin had shortened the distance by using _shunpo_ akin to the nahualli's _ollin_ _ **[1]**_ _,_ but she chose to conserve what little spiritual energy Yuuto had gifted her.

The streets devoid of their earlier liveliness. Few shinigami patrolled the different sectors and she avoided encountering them by pinpointing everyone's location. She realized belatedly that Sōsuke had gotten away without saying anything about what happened to Shinji.

Gin had shrugged his shoulders when she questioned him about it and unconsciously indicated that he knew more than he planned to tell her. She couldn't find a lot of people, not just Shinji and Souko—Kisuke and Hiyori for one. The bigger energies in Twelfth Division were familiar, but they weren't the ones she remembered. Lisa from Eight Division wasn't around, either. The captains of Third Division and Seventh Division were different.

_What happened here?_

Sōsuke did something. Shinji had always been wary of him.

/

Shinji! _Kazuye perked up, abandoning her open book, and sped to the front door to open it as Shinji was about to knock. The thin-faced man with the long golden hair looked down, a grin curling his lips. He was still dressed in his black shihakusho and white captain's haori._

_Souko appeared at the end of the hallway, drying her hands on the apron tied at her waist. Her lavender hair tied in a high ponytail with a few stubborn strands sticking up from the heat of the fires in the kitchen. "Lady Kazuye, I told you not to open the door for—"_

_"It's just Shinji!" announced Kazuye, jumping up and down in front of him with her arms up._

_Shinji hoisted her up into his arms as Souko approached, wiping furiously at the flour dusted on her cheeks._

_"We should talk, Souko," said Shinji._

_Souko blinked. "Talk about what?"_

_Kazuye wrapped an arm around Shinji's back, holding herself up, as he moved closer to her flushed retainer. Kazuye watched them with glee. "Stuff," he said, invading Souko's personal space. "You free for dinner?"_

_"Kazuye will join us," she stated._

_"Sure, I don't mind."_

_Kazuye squealed. "Can I visit Lieutenant Aizen too?"_

_"No."_

_"No."_

_Shinji and Souko exchanged looks, having spoken in unison._

_"Why not?" asked Kazuye, cheeks puffed out._

_"He's busy with work," offered Souko._

_"Why d'ya wanna spend time with some boring guy like him anyways?" asked Shinji._

_"He's not boring!" She started to shake Shinji. "He's fun! He has so many books and he knows so many things!"_

_"I was just about done with dinner preparations if you wouldn't mind eating here." Souko released her apron and smoothed out the wrinkle. "It'll be good."_

_Kazuye huffed. "I want to go to_ Okoya Sushi _!"_

_"No, you're too high-risk still," said Souko, her green eyes firm in their refusal. "What if you lose control of your power?"_

_"But I've been drinking my potion every day to help and I've been okay."_

_"You can't rely on the medicine forever," advised Souko. "It's not one hundred percent foul proof, so it won't work all the time."_

_Kazuye shifted in Shinji's arms, upset, but conceded, "Fine! But Shinji has to help me read_ The Viper _!"_

_"Bring it on," said Shinji, setting her back down on her feet._

_Kazuye celebrated with a quick shake of her body and a laugh. She rushed back to her siting room to pick up the heavy two-thousand-page tome and handed it to Shinji._

_Shinji stared at its every angle. "What book is this?"_

_"Lieutenant Aizen has been helping her practice her kanji with it."_

_"Ain't it too much for practicing her kanji?"_

_"It's a really good book!" announced Kazuye. "Lieutenant Aizen recommended it to me!"_

_Shinji leaned closer to Souko, whispering, "We should jus' drop her off with Sōsuke."_

_Souko smacked his arm. "You trust him as far as you can throw him."_

_Kazuye looked from Souko to Shinji, listened to Sōsuke's name on their lips. She didn't understand why they didn't want to let her be around him. He was kind and everyone liked him._

_"Hey, I'm very trusting of Sōsuke. Yer the one that's all, if I can't read his thoughts, I don't wanna trust him," he said, imitating her tone of voice._

_Kazuye giggle._

_"I do_ not _sound like that!"_

_"Yer the one that says it that way," Shinji teased, nudging her with his elbow._

_Souko frowned. "Well, I overreacted. I don't believe I know Lieutenant Aizen well enough to judge him over the fact that his stray thoughts never reach me."_

_Shinji shrugged his shoulders. "Can I come in? It's pretty cold out here."_

_Souko welcomed him inside the narrow corridor in front of the entrance. Kazuye took her copy of_ The Viper _from his hands and tucked it under her arm, watching them in gleeful silence as Shinji followed Souko down the hallway to the kitchen._

_Kazuye sprinted after them, trying to keep up with their longer strides._

_"I mean, I never considered it, but what if he's an idiot."_

_"Nuh-uh, that man ain't stupid," remarked Shinji._

_"Who's stupid?" asked Kazuye._

_Souko waved her off to the sitting room, but Kazuye chased them around the kitchen._

_"Not like that, I meant more like an airhead. What if there are literally no thoughts in his head?" asked Souko. "I'd be overreacting then."_

_"You're overreacting now," said Shinji, his hands planted firm on the counter full of neatly separated ingredients. "Jus' don't think about it too much. It ain't like he's doing anything evil by talking to her."_

_"Okay, really? You're being a hypocrite." Souko picked up her knife and continued chopping up the leeks for their hotpot. "That's exactly what you wanted to avoid."_

_"Well, that's before I realized that she'd have to live in the same division as him. It's not like she's going to be able to avoid him." Shinji sighed. "If she's going to be hanging around me all day, he's going to be around, so just keep an eye on her while you're there. I will too."_

_Kazuye climbed onto a seat next to the counter as Souko huffed. "What exactly are we keeping an eye out for?"_

_She wanted to know, too._

_"He's just up to something. I feel it."_

_"You_ feel _it?" Souko arched a lavender brow. "Is that it?"_

_"I've got good instinct. I'm a Sayegh, just like Hisaye here." Shinji reached over to pat the top of Kazuye's black head. "There's something very wrong 'bout that man an' he's gonna mess up one of these days, then I'll have him."_

_Kazuye lowered her gaze to the wicker basket overflowing with tomatoes and carrots, fresh from her garden. She propped her arms up on the surface and listened in silence._

_She tried to understand, but when she didn't, as she had many times before, had gone to Sōsuke to ask the next time she had the chance to see him._

_"Shinji and Souko don't want me to spend so much time with you," said Kazuye, a book clasped to her chest. "Are you angry with each other?"_

_Sōsuke looked down at her. "Why do you think so?"_

_She rolled her shoulders. "Why wouldn't they let me come here? You're nice and you explain things to me. I memorized more kanji now and glyphs, too. Souko teaches me things, but she's not that good at explaining them, not like you. And Shinji…I guess he's a great leader, right?"_

_He smiled at her. "Yes, he is, but perhaps, you should listen to them."_

\

 _"What happened to Shinji?"_ The question went unanswered after he distracted her with his proposal, but her mind returned to Shinji's suspicion and her reaction to it. She went straight to the source to ask about it like an idiot. What had he done to Shinji to make him and others disappear? Was it because she told him about it that time long ago?

Kazuye hurried through a white road that divided rows of maple trees. Strong winds chilled her. The high crescent moon promised ill omens. She paused, hearing a rustle. _The wind?_ She shuddered, a prickle of spiritual energy reached her, but whoever it belonged to hid well. One offense was all it would take for her to return to her prison.

She gritted her teeth. _I won't go back._ She walked and shed her anxiety. She hadn't used her power willingly in so long that it would be difficult to control, but she had enough strength to anchor her strength. It depended who she encountered. She couldn't judge their power on a single drop of it.

Gin stepped out from between the trees up ahead and she relaxed at the sight of him, but she noticed immediately that he carried a sword at his side. She halted, his reiatsu growing powerful as it rushed her in waves that paralyzed her body. His cruel intentions slipped in, burrowed as deep as his sword would.

"Shoot to kill, Shinsō."

The blade of Gin's wakizashi glowed white and extended at high speed, impaling straight through her chest. It ruptured a lung, scrapped past her heart, and sheared off bone. The force hurled her body about a hundred yards as it left her flesh. She hit the ground hard, blood burst from her mouth and pooled underneath her.

She choked out his name as his white face materialized above her. Life escaped her like a river rushing into the ocean. Her heart slowed as the magic began to unwind inside of her, splitting up into long tendrils of string. Healing and reconstruction were similar kinds of magic. The latter referred to a wider range of things outside rebuilding the human body, but healing was about returning the body to its optimal condition. One needed to recognize one's optimal condition to do it right. The members of the Eglantine Order were skilled at figuring this out at a glance. It had taken Kazuye years coming undone before she could finally put herself together perfectly.

"Sorry 'bout that, but you're way too dangerous to keep around."

How did the body produce more blood? What vitamins did it need? Where were they found? How to replicate them? She learned it. She read books about the human body, dozens of them. The grimoires she inherited from her grandparents advised her to read. So, she did, borrowing as many books from Sōsuke and accessing the few she could through the Great Archives with Shinji's permission.

She struggled to turn on her side and she vomited blood. The thick, sticky liquid underneath her soaked into her clothes. She no longer struggled to breathe. She had repaired her lung. Used the useful cells in the one that she had to create a new one. It was a lot like growing plants, whispering gently at them to rise.

"Why?" she uttered, a guttural sound spilled from her lips.

"Yer gonna get in the way later."

She fell forward onto a puddle of her own blood. Pain reverberated through her body and her heart slowed as it mended.

Kazuye calmed. She listened. His footsteps faded. Alone again. The blood underneath her went cold.

* * *

**Oh, Sweet Death of Mine.** End

* * *

[1] **Ollin** , the Nahuatl word for " _movement,_ " is a teleportation technique used by nahualli that utilizes reiryoku to transport its user across space and distance instantly. It can only cover distances as far as the user can see. However, while it may be possible for a person with good eye sight to travel very far because of the nature of the technique, doing so can be dangerous as it requires a large draw in spiritual energy. Thus, it is used sparingly in daily life and in combat.


	4. The Last Sayegh Shaman

_Her grandmother promised she'd live forever, but Kano's body had succumbed to the weight of Kazuye's potential. That talent had pushed her grandmother closer to the end. If Kazuye didn't exist, her grandmother wouldn't have had to exhaust her spiritual energy to keep her safe and her powers controlled._

_Kazuye's sadness was like quicksand._

_Death loomed. Kano teared up with Kazuye. The candles in Quetzalcoatl's altar burned brightly, the blue wax melting along their tall edges, and filled the room with unnatural warmth. The presence so overbearing it was as if the god himself had been present to usher her into her next life._

_She read her grandmother's expression as if it were an open book full of the concerns she would be leaving—wondering, among the sea of them, what would become of Kazuye._

_"I will be so lonely without you," Kazuye whispered, sobbing into her handkerchief._

_"You grow strong, but you must never be too curious to see what others will not tell you directly."_

_"Okay."_

_"When you were born, Tezcatlipoca_ _**[1]** _ _blessed you once and Mictlantecuhtli_ _**[2]** _ _blessed you twice. You are destined to inherit great power as you will dangers," Kano began, intoning monotonously as though she were reciting a prophesy she memorized long ago. "You will not be loved by your people, you will not be loved by love, and you will lose any that love you. You will be made a mockery, labeled an abomination, cursed, and, in many ways, you will be used. But you must swear something to me, my lovely girl."_

_Kazuye bit her lip to muffle her sobs, saddened by the words, and nodded._

_"Suffer every injustice," Kano told her. "Endure it until you have learned from it so that it never happens again."_

_She swallowed hard, feeling her skin grow cold._

_Kano gripped Kazuye's hand until her knuckles blanched and the blood drained from her face, the suddenness of the action startled Kazuye._

_"And if that brings you enemies, you welcome them," she continued between harsh breaths, "and if evil knocks at your door, you open your heart for it. Xochiquetzal_ _ ** [3] ** _ _, you are the last Sayegh Shaman, the last nahualli princess, so do not dull your edge out of fear. Be brave. Be free. Do it for me."_

\

Kazuye spent years being trampled on by others. She was an unnatural existence. The cursed child. The abomination. Blessed once by Tezcatlipoca and twice by Mictlantecuhtli. Born on Itzcuintli[4]. Even death wouldn't take her.

She rose and wiped a hand over her mouth, smearing the blood across her jaw.

She returned to Fifth Division. She stalled in the middle of the emptied streets within. She avoided the patrolmen around the barracks, but waited outside until the chill turned her skin to ice and the moonlight brightened, making the gold in the buildings around her glitter.

Gin had returned home.

She sensed him.

She _Glimpsed_ at him from where she stood, one eye closed and her spirit energy powering the distance she saw with the other, absorbing the very core of her surroundings to recharge her energy.  Gin walked across his room and removed his zanpakutō from his sash in one fluid movement. He would sleep without sparing her a thought and would wake the next morning knowing nothing. This wasn't new. He killed Fifth Division's Third Seat after joining the squad. He was a snake.

She'd deal with him later.

Kazuye stood outside Sōsuke's door, skin quivering. Stubbornness kept her out. She pictured bars and the incarcerating spellwork that had previously contained her—she put herself back in that box—but the cold evening air nipped at her ankles and stabbed through the fabric of her robe, piercing deep into her flesh.

 _Open the door and it will turn you to ash and bone._ The sensation of the magic that dismantled her, melted skin and muscle from her bones faster than she could put her body together, and she scratched at the inside of her wrist, drawing long, red lines.

It hurt.

To die. To live. The space in between. The reiryoku threads that unraveled and drank deep of her energy to undo the damage, creating her anew—cell by cell.

Souko would've taken her into her arms, bundled her up like a babe, and whispered away at her temple, brushing back her hair, until the aches between her bones dissolved into the heat of her embrace.

Kazuye rubbed her watery eyes. Comfort. To go to him for comfort. Ridiculous.

 _Allure_ guaranteed her a choice in whoever else she wanted. Anyone remotely attractive would do.

But she had nowhere else to go this late at night. Gin tried to kill her. The stranger she picked up earlier disappointed her. He didn't have warmth. The heat of his fingers pressing into her flesh were strong, enough to bruise her skin, but were lacking.

The paneled screen door slid open, startling her, and Sōsuke emerged from the darkness within, his gaze steady on her face and patient. The moonlight rolled out onto the verandah, reaching its long limbs to touch him, and her heart twisted.

Sōsuke slid his fingers under her chin and raised her face, turning it from side to side. The dry blood on her face had flecked and fluttered away like wood shavings catching the wind of a new creation.

He released her. "Wait inside."

Kazuye entered his room, swallowed by its comforting heat, as he exited, shutting the door behind him. She pulled at the sash around her waist, her chest sticky with blood from the wound, and mopped up the blood.

She listened to the dribbling of the blood on the tatami. She raised one leg and stepped back, away from the red stains seeping into the floor. The blood darkened against her brown skin as it dried, messy across her breasts.

She dropped the sullied robe on the floor and sat down on it cross-legged. She held her hands up in front of her face, the light tumbling in from the rice-paper screen made her blood glitter like rubies in her hands, bright, rubbery rubies that melted in the sun.

Sōsuke returned with a basin of water and clean towels. He crouched down in front of her and took her face, pressing a wet towel to her mouth.

She snatched the cloth from his hand and rubbed her skin raw.

His expression darkened, eyes steady on the entry point of her wound. "Who tried to kill you?"

She tasted the blood on her tongue, as if she had swallowed a handful of pennies. It smelled strong. "I don't know."

"Is that so?"

She lowered the towel from her face. "Do you doubt me?"

"You're not very honest."

She took one of the towels from his lap. "I'm going to the bathhouse."

* * *

Kazuye scrubbed her body clean and washed the blood out of her hair until the water ran clear. She sat on the bathing stool until the water dried on her olive skin. She wasted all the energy Yuuto had given her putting herself back together, but if he hadn't given it to her, Gin would've killed her.

_Too dangerous._

Dangerous.

_"Do you know why you are here? Fear."_

Kazuye stared at her reflection in the mirror across her. Her damp hair started to dry into curls, the sound of the water dripping from the ends echoed in the empty bathhouse. Her bones strained against her skin, like her flesh was too small for them. She didn't look human. Green eyes wide and crazy, dark circles under them, and her lips dry, the skin tearing.

_"People fear you because they cannot understand you."_

Gin sounded like he understood why he needed to kill her. It wasn't that he wanted to, his need filled the air between them with electrifying bloodlust that wouldn't be quelled with anything but success.

What would he accomplish? She would get in the way if he spared her later. How?

Sōsuke played a part.

_"He went outta his way to get you out of prison."_

Pretty words filled her thoughts.

_"Use your power—all of your gifts."_

Sōsuke's proposal replaced them. She mulled it over as she soaked in the warm water. Her head woozy and her body heavy with exhaustion. She regretted making the trip to the bathhouse and hoped she had enough energy to make it back to Sōsuke.

She didn't believe he proposed marriage to excuse their frequent meetings. She was missing something.

Kazuye submerged herself completely in the water. It was happening again.

* * *

Kazuye returned to Sōsuke's room where he waited with a book in his hand, a soft light created a sphere around him. He lifted his eyes to her, bookmarking his place with a forefinger.

"Did you change your mind about staying with Gin?"

"Do you want me to leave?" she asked, drawn to the way the light wrapped around him. She used to approach him with enviable ease.

"No."

This man was all she had to rely on. She cast a glance in the direction of his lain futon and returned her gaze to the ground. It used to be easy for her to sit near him before. Now, she inched closer to him with doubts clouding her mind and her heart betraying several beats. Her cheeks flushed and her ears burned with embarrassment.

"I need more spirit energy," she told him. "To protect myself. I won't be able to heal myself a next time."

Sōsuke extended a hand to her. "Take as much as you need and rest."

She took it, sinking down on her knees in front of him.

She pressed her lips to his open palm and absorbed a large draw of his spiritual energy to sate her hunger. The nahualli called it _Channeling_. They commanded, thus channeled, another person's spiritual energy and absorbed it into their bodies, converting it into their own. It took years of practice to do it without endangering the person giving up their energy and it had been easy for Kazuye to learn from Sōsuke. He had so much spiritual energy that he was never in any danger with her channels.

In close proximity, she caught whiff of the scents he emitted—fresh linen, his skin after hours in the sun, fresh plums and cherries, ground coffee beans, the earth of her garden after rainfall, smoky frankincense, and boiling mint leaves. She blamed her gift, _Allure._ She had no control of her powers, so they controlled her.

She melted in his touch, brief as his fingertips were along her jaw, and exhaled.

This was the warmth she wanted, but never would admit it.

"Control your power, Lady Kazuye."

"Why?" She pressed his hand to her cheek. "Is it working?"

The scents grew stronger. She took the book from him and set it aside to straddled him. She raked her fingers through his hair, his hands firm on her waist.

"What do you smell?" she asked, guiding his head back and cradled it in her hands. She pressed her mouth to his and lingered. "Kiss me, Sōsuke."

"No." He captured her gaze. "You're not in control."

She flushed, wanting the strength to push him away—reject him. She inched closer instead, her body pressed against his and whispered, "Please. Just once"

She breathed him in, intoxicated, and rubbed her face against him, pushing his hands down from her waist to her hips. This wasn't what she wanted. She needed to rest, recover her energy, and prepare for tomorrow. She looked forward to her confrontation with Gin.

He closed his eyes and exhaled, but she sensed his resistance. She used it to anchor herself and push against him to return to her feet, embarrassed as the aromas started to recede, giving way for natural smells of the room to settle.

"Sōsuke, I'm sorry," she said, her face darkened with a blush. "I should go."

Sōsuke clasped her wrist as she started to leave. "Will you _lure_ someone to let you stay the night?"

She snatched her hand back, holding it close to her chest. "I have other powers _._ "

"Yes, but _Allure_ is an active power that requires constant control and as you recover your strength, your abilities are very uncooperative," he said slowly. "You learned to control them before and after decades of not using them, you're going to have to re-learn it. You cannot be with others if you are a danger to yourself."

"You didn't mind when I planned to crash with Gin."

He offered her a light chuckle.

She grimaced. "Oh, so you just assumed I would return here?"

"I didn't assume."

* * *

 **The Last Sayegh Shaman.** End

* * *

[1] **Tezcatlipoca** , the _Smoking Mirror_ , is a central god in Aztec Mythology. He is the god of the nocturnal sky, ancestral memory, time, north, and the embodiment of change through conflict. Tezcatlipoca created the world with Quetzalcoatl, his opposite (often called the White Tezcatlipoca while Tezcatlipoca is called the Black Tezcatlipoca). He is associated with obsidian, sorcery, beauty, war, jaguars, divination, temptation, etc. Tezcatlipoca is a trickster god. He is also one of the nine Lords of the Night. He was married to four women. Tezcatlipoca is pronounced, " _tes-kaat-lee-poeh-cah._ "

[2] **Mictlantecuhtli** , in Aztec Mythology, was a god of death and king of Mictlan, the lowest underworld. He was one of the nine Lords of the Night. He was closely associated with bats, owls, and spiders. He was also considered one of the main gods in the pantheon. Mictlantecuhtli is pronounced, " _meek-tlan-teh-coot-lee._ " The Aztecs didn't believe in the existence of a paradise for the good, they believed that everyone was equal in death, thus went to the underworld where they would meet Mictlantecuhtli face-to-face. Despite this, certain people were exempt from this.

[3] **Xochiquetzal** is a Nahuatl name meaning " _flower feather"_ with xochitl, " _flower_ ," and quetzal, " _feather_." Quetzal is a shorter form of quetzalli, meaning " _precious feather._ " It is pronounced " _shok-ee-ket-sal_." The pronunciation of this name is a little more difficult to write out because of the quetzal part of the name. I figured it was easier to write it out as ke, like how you would start to say the name "Kelly." If you've ever heard a native Spanish speaker say the word "what" or " _que,_ " I would write it out as "quet-" because you'd know what it sounds like, particularly if you speak Spanish.

The name Xochiquetzal is never used as a given name on its own. There is usually another name attached to it. For example, something like this: Meztli Xochiquetzal. For the sake of this story, it will be used alone.

Xochiquetzal, in Aztec Mythology, was a goddess of fertility, beauty, female sexuality, and artisans. She was representative of human desire, pleasure, excess, magic, and love spells. She is associated with flowers and plants. She is often depicted surrounded by flowers and butterflies, and, at times, followed by a hummingbird or a jaguar. She is the patroness of artisans and occasionally seen as the patroness of prostitutes.

The goddess was married to the rain god, Tlaloc, until Tezcatlipoca kidnapped her and forced her to marry him.

[4] **Itzcuintli** (dog) is a day sign in the Aztec calendar. It is governed by Mictlantecuhtli. This means that he provides the life energy, or soul, for those born on this day. Itzcuintli is a perfect day for funerals, wakes, and remembering the dead. It is pronounced, " _eets-queent-lee_."


	5. Network

_In dreams,she unravels._

_She comes apart like her skin is made of ribbons and it unfurls, sinking to the ground until she is bare muscle, contracting with each slow breath until she sheds it. Her muscle peels as though a sharpened knife slices through it, scraping it from her bones and she feels it, rummaging through her organs, dropping them like overripened fruit too heavy for their branches._

_Crows feast upon her, their beaks glisten with black blood and squawk up at her hollowed eyes._

_And beyond their beady black eyes, she sees the molten gold of the queen's narrow gaze glaring up at her, her voice whispering beneath her breath a curse asking death take her—tear at her piece by piece until she turned to nothing. Not even a part of the earth or back into the cycle of souls that govern their world._

_The queen wishes to stamp her out of existence. Turn time to prevent her birth. Curse her mother to sterility. Kill the man that became her father._

_A deep rumble approaches, like thunder announcing the coming of lightning, and the soft pad of steps draw her attention to the spotted jaguar inching closer, watering mouth parted. The crows spring into a slow flight and one is stricken down by the feline's sure leap. It squawks one last time as its bones crunch inside the mouth of the beast._

_Blood pours from its mouth, sharp teeth reddened with it, and its green eyes glow bright in the shroud of darkness that encircles them. She bends forward as it sniffs the air and her bones creak, forcing the animal into a crouch. A low grumble vibrates up its muscled throat, leaving his mouth like a slowly spreading fog._

_She reaches out to it and it snaps its jaw at her, but she doesn't flinch. "Shhhh.”_

_Slowly, it moves to her, bowing its head under her skeletal hand. She presses her hand to its sleek fur and the jaguar emits a golden light that fades as it shoots into her._

Kazuye jolted.

She heard the creak of the floorboards following Sōsuke's movements around the room and peeled her eyes open to the soft orb of white light glowing around the lantern. She sat up on the futon, her black curls spilled down her back like a curtain falling across an open window, and her robe opened, revealing the fading rosettes on her brown flesh. Her skin tingled as if it were not her own. Foreign spiritual energies coursed in her and her body attempted to digest them, break them down to reconstruct them into her own.

Not a blemish remained on her skin, nothing visually indicated that she had been stabbed through the chest, but the memory carved itself into her brain and left an impression inside of her. She came apart and magic bound her together, turning life into a curse.

She swallowed, the saliva thick as it washed down her throat as though she had been dealing with stubborn phlegm after a bad cold. She rubbed her throat, though it did not aid in its passing.

Sōsuke had put away the extra futon that he draped on the tatami beside his own where he had pretended to sleep as she tossed and turned an arm's length away from him, sighing into the cold air above her lips, her skin clinging to death's chill. The scents that weakened her knees, that spurned desire in her, lingered with the cool night air and she ached, unable to sleep because she needed heat to warm her limbs. She had no desire to venture outside to prove Sōsuke right. Lure another to stay elsewhere. Far from him. No. She had refused.

Control returned to her with the spiritual energy imbibed and she clung to the new stability.

"How are you feeling?" asked Sōsuke.

She lifted her head towards the light. "Have you ever been so close to death that you can feel your very core hanging by a thinning thread? Like your soul is exiting your body."

Sōsuke half-turned, a hand on the sash that held together his sleeping robe. "No."

"I figured."

Death wasn't the freedom she wanted, but it appeared to be her only option in Soul Society. Unwanted and despised, whether she had supporters or not among her people, there were more enemies than friends. Every day that she spent by Sōsuke's side—there because she needed his protection—the more she realized that at least inside her prison, she had passed moments of peace. As a beast skulking the boundaries. Hooting through the bars to hear the sound echo back louder, rustling her feathers. To crawl among the shadows, spinning webs in shining arrays. Lying on the ground, warmed by the feathers she shed, her nails bleeding from clawing at the walls, and imagining the silvery web as a dazzling constellation of twinkling stars. Imagining that she was there with Souko. The ghost of her hand on Kazuye's, love consumed her. Love for the woman that tried to be a good mother to her.

She wanted to go to wherever she was, but feared if that somewhere did not exist that she had nowhere to go. What life could she build on her own? Should she seek out the Human World nahualli? Would she find acceptance with them?

"I wonder how life would be if I didn't exist." Kazuye smiled at the thought. It wasn't a bad idea. "What would you do if I died?"

"Would you like me to mourn you?" he asked.

"Would you?"

"It would be a shame to lose your power."

She laughed, self-deprecatingly. "I suppose that would be a loss."

She wouldn't be missed here. Good. It'd be easier to leave if she had no connections. There were too many things left for her to do. Find her grimoires, amass spiritual energy, gain access to all of her Gifts, gather ingredients, pick the right location, prepare the sacrifices. Before that, she had another matter to take care of.

Kazuye pinpointed Gin's spiritual energy and she _Glimpsed_ at him. The lieutenant went through his morning routine. Not shaken by her murder. She had evaporated from his thoughts the moment he had _shunpoed_ back to his quarters. No remorse had poured into the blade that pierced her. The metal had been cold, sharpened as it sliced through her bone, tearing through organs and blood vessels, and it paralyzed her.

Sōsuke dressed into his shihakusho in front of the opened closet behind her. "You are still too wasteful with your spiritual energy. An uncomplicated power like _Glimpse_ doesn't require as much energy as you put into it, no matter the distance."

"Are you worried that you won't be able to sate my appetite?" she asked, unenthused by his advice.

"Are you?"

Kazuye rose and snatched his haori as he reached for it. She stepped behind him and held it out for him to slide his arms into it. She smoothed out the fabric over his shoulders and arms, walking around to stand before him to pull the white coat down evenly. He appeared meticulous, down to the last strand of his tousled brown hair.

"Why do you insist on answering my questions with more questions?"

Sōsuke regarded her with a smile as he slid his glasses on. "Why, indeed?"

"It annoys me."

"I am aware." He walked past her to the door. "You're welcomed to stay in the barracks as long as you need to. I can arrange for a new room if you would prefer, although, I don't mind you remaining here."

"For what purpose?" Kazuye frowned. "Your interest in me isn't of that nature."

Sōsuke paused, looking at her. "Is that what you think?"

"I don't think you're capable of it. Desire for another." She walked to him, sliding between his body and the door. "A man with your ambitions is beyond worldly desires."

He chuckled, the glare of his glasses hid the emotion in his gaze. "Does it bother you that I do not desire you?"

The ghost of a smile on her lips vanished. "The reason you are not at my feet begging me to sleep with you is because _I_ do not want you, so don't think for a moment that I would. Yesterday was a mere lapse of control."

"Good."

Sōsuke left his quarters and she steamed, pacing the room with her hands balled tight into fists. She decided to waste no more time. She had some important things to do that day and it started with Gin. She dressed out of her sleeping robe and dressed into a plain, lavender colored piece that Sōsuke had left for her.

She _Glimpsed_ Gin's location once more. He was on the move. No doubt headed to Sōsuke. She calculated the route he traveled and chose a street that he would cross in order to intercept his path. She waited until she sensed him near, watching the clouds in the sky.

Kazuye pulled away from the wall, observing the miniscule flinch of his eyebrow as she appeared before Gin.

"Morning, Kazuye," he said with a wide grin. "Fancy seeing you around."

The narrow street emptied out earlier, though the occasional shinigami strolled by on their way from one end of the division to another, and the morning sun shone radiantly, warming her body with its rays, stripping her of the stubborn frost that had settled in her marrow.

"Isn't it?" She mirrored his smile. "We should talk."

"Nah, I'm good."

Kazuye didn't let him pass. "You're not. I doubt Sōsuke would be happy to hear about how you tried to kill me last night. He's very curious about it."

"That so? I thought he didn't care 'bout anyone but himself? You're a pawn, remember?"

"I'm important." She smiled. "So, let's go somewhere quiet and have a chat." She stepped forward, narrowing the distance between their bodies. "Your choice. We can do things quietly or I can cause a scene."

Gin waved her forward. "After you."

They went to a remote location past Seireitei's boundaries and into an empty clearing in east Rukongai encircled with thick-leaved trees. Plenty of Hollow existed nearby and it wouldn't take them long to notice her. Her spiritual energy was practically Hollow bait. One high-ranked nahualli accelerated Hollow evolution. It was fact. Devouring someone like her—there was no telling the outcome, but it wasn't something that anyone wanted to experience firsthand.

"Ain't this too out there for you? What if we're attacked?" Gin remarked.

"Thanks to you I don't have the energy to spare." She unfurled her fists, staring down at the palm of one hand. "I'll admit I don't have access to my offensive abilities, so you'll have to take care of any Hollows."

"You're all the more vulnerable against me, then?"

"Are you looking for Sōsuke's weakness?" asked Kazuye, her steps stamping out a path across the grass. She leaned her back against a large boulder in the middle of the clearing.

"Conspiring against a captain is treason."

"So is the attempted murder of a nahualli princess, exiled or not." Kazuye loosened the sash around her waist and opened her robe slightly to expose the center of her chest. She began to deconstruct the damage. A red line appeared and the skin pulled apart in the middle, but no blood spilled. "I have evidence. Your spiritual energy is still in me."

Gin's wariness shot up like a shield. "Yer pretty scary."

Kazuye fixed her wound and closed her robe, tightening her sash. "Keep me out of whatever it is you're trying to accomplish," she told him, her gaze narrowed into a glare. "I have my own reasons for being at his side, same as you, and I'm not going to let a brat like you get in the way of what I want."

"It ain't like you can stop me."

"Unlike you, Gin, I'm not expendable." Kazuye heard a breeze rustle the leaves of the trees around them and she sensed the Hollow nearby become aware of her presence. She watched the smile disappear from his lips. "It's good to know that we're finally on the same page."

"What d'ya want?" he asked, blue eyes shining dangerously at her.

"I need a favor."

"That so?"

"Yes, and if you value your life, you'll do it."

"What is it?"

"Find Akizuki Yuuto, the chief of the Winterbloom Order, in Ilhuicatl and tell him to come find me, discreetly."

"What're you up to?"

"Just do it. Or don't and try to kill me again, just don't expect me to mysteriously forget your name when Sōsuke asks."

"You don't have enough spiritual energy to heal yourself a second time," Gin challenged, approaching her, his shadow eclipsed her body perched on the boulder. "You said it yourself."

She opened her arms wide for him. "Would you like to try?"

Gin slid backward and turned away wordlessly, leaving her alone in the clearing just as the Hollow's roar tore through the rustling trees. He sensed it, too. No doubt. He did it on purpose. Perhaps it'd kill her for him.

Kazuye stood, the grassy ground underneath her sandaled feet rumbled, and looked over her shoulder as the beast stormed past the forest's edge, its sharpened fingers extended and its hungry mouth open, salivating.

" **Nahualli!** "

She raised a hand and sparked a flame in the center of her palm where it spun wildly into the shape of a sphere. She commanded it through the Hollow's mask and it seared a hole through it before burning out in the air. The Hollow disintegrated before it hit the ground.

Kazuye stared at her hand. Molding the pyrokinetic spellwork drew deep of her newly circulating spiritual energy. She took control for granted when she learned it. There was an ease to magic as there was to breathing. She utilized it thoughtlessly, without concern of the amount of reiryoku it required or how it needed to be molded because she mastered the ability to _Measure_ long before she had learned to use proper spellwork.

_"You are still too wasteful with your spiritual energy."_

She wasn't used to having so little of it.

* * *

Kazuye stopped before the imposing gate into Twelfth Division. She had spent a lot of time inside here and in the Shinigami Research and Development Institute with the man that had established it, learning as he did about her abilities after ending her confinement for the Udagawa Eiki incident.

Unconsciously, she reached to touch her neck, her fingers coming away empty. The charm that Urahara Kisuke created had shattered in her power surge, the tiny obsidian orb had shaken violently before it shattered into a million shining pieces and her power skyrocketed, tremors assaulting all of Soul Society with the monstrous weight of her spiritual energy. It was the last thing she remembered before it all went black.

Her grimoires were in Kisuke's possession. The last they had spoken, they were deciphering her great-grandfather's research into the nature of curses. Among them were many ritual-based spellwork that required a blood sacrifice—a practice utilized to strengthen their power banned by the consequences that had nearly obliterated her people.

Those magic books contained her exit strategy, but so did the man whose curious energy permeated the premises. She hadn't planned to meet with him so soon. She wanted to regain more of her spiritual power, gain access to more of her abilities, but her enemies wouldn't stand around and do nothing while she stayed weak. She had to act fast.

Kazuye requested an audience with the division's captain from the men guarding the entrance. One left and returned with a spikey-haired man with a pair of horns protruding from his high forehead. He recognized her as soon as she did him, though he had been a lot smaller when she had walked the institute hallways with Hiyori Sarugaki berating her for never saying anything to the people that insulted her.

"Hey," said the black-haired man, his white lab coat covered his shihakusho.

"Akon," she said, putting on a smile. "It's been a few decades."

"I thought you were going to spend life in the pyramid."

"That was Sumika's plan, but the re-trial confirmed that I was provoked by her people into the incident," replied Kazuye. "Plus, it didn't look good that she was torturing me every chance she got." She shrugged. "I'm here to see Mayuri."

"Sure." He gestured her forward. "Come on."

Akon guided her to the Shinigami Research and Development Institute. The grouped buildings housed several laboratories in charge of different types of research and as an adolescent, she had gone into each center with Yuuto at her side, observing the nature of her power and scribbling notes into a black journal he kept in the breast pocket of his black haori, while Kisuke tested the extent of the abilities she had manifested. She destroyed one of the tall white buildings, the ones that resembled white dome-like vases that narrowed into a funnel as they grew taller, when Kisuke had placed her in a room bright with fluorescent lights that blinded her.

/

_"Hold as many of the flames inside of you for as long as you can, generating them as hot as you can make them," Kisuke told her, holding up a finger, his brown gaze held hers. Behind the glass window, she caught a glimpse of Yuuto prodding the machine in front of him with a concentrated wrinkle between his pale blue eyebrows. "And when you feel like you hit a wall, release it."_

_"What if something happens?"_

_"The building is pretty sturdy." Kisuke patted her head. "We'll be fine."_

_The entire building had burst like a volcano when she released her stored pyrotechnic magic and the neighboring buildings were scorched by the flames that had spread. Yuuto had drawn a water barrier that contained the fires as a countermeasure that activated almost as soon as it detected the powerful heat. Its clear ceiling showered the confined space until smoke rose from the ashes of the fires. Kisuke had lowered his zanpakutō, the blood wall that had protected him and Yuuto had not shattered because he had the sense to reinforce the shield multiple times when the explosion engulfed the entire building._

_Kisuke had wiped a hang across his forehead. "That gave me a scare."_

_Kazuye had stared at the two men wide-eyed, her muscles frozen stiff from the sudden fright. She had not seen them before the smoke cleared and while the sight of them made her heart leap. She breathed haggardly, from the fatigue and the anxiety._

_"How're you doing, Lady Kazuye?" asked Kisuke, approaching her, his shadow cast across her hunched body. Smoke rose from her skin, the heat evaporating with the spiritual energy exhausted for the test. He looked around and let out a low whistle. "This is amazing, Lady Kazuye. You're making great progress."_

_"I'll be damned," Yuuto said, shocked. "You might just be the strongest witch alive. I literally felt your power vibrating against the walls of my barrier. The interference is research worthy!"_

_She had blinked away tears._

_"Are you hurt?" asked Kisuke._

_Kazuye cleaned the tears from her eyes. "I thought you would be angry."_

_"Angry? For what?" asked Kisuke._

_"The building."_

_"We just gotta build a sturdier one." Yuuto raised a tiny piece of technology as he reached them. "With the data I collected, we might be able to find a way to create stronger buildings that can withstand a powerful attack."_

_Kisuke laughed. "If anything, we might need you to do your best to destroy a couple of more buildings."_

\

The Winterbloom Order worked closely with Twelfth Division since the institute's inception and had helped accelerate the construction of many special rooms with Zahir spellwork, magic that leaned more towards the academic, the mathematical, the truer equations of life.

Kazuye wondered if the walls were more robust. Could they withstand an attack from her at the peak of her power?

Akon took her to Mayuri Kurotsuchi's office. The man looked as eccentric as she remembered, though more so today than the last she'd seen of him with his entire body painted white with the exception of his face, which was black apart from his nose, resembling a skull.

"Ah," he said, abandoning the monitor that he stood before. "The nahualli runt. Who let you out?"

"I knew it was your vile energy I sensed penetrating the walls of this place," said Kazuye, folding her arms across her chest.

"Akon, leave us," he ordered, gesturing her out of the door.

Akon exited wordlessly, sealing the double doors shut behind her.

"What do you want?" demanded Kurotsuchi Mayuri. He wore the white haori of a captain. She supposed with Kisuke gone, he had been the most obvious contender to inherit the position.

"I came to thank you…or perhaps, I should say, you should thank me," said Kazuye, moving around the room, running her hands over the many pieces of technology within the room. This used to be Kisuke's office. The corridors that they had taken were the same ones that she recalled from decades ago. But despite the familiarity of the route there, the interior of the office no longer exuded the insatiable luster for discovery that Kisuke's had. This man's madness penetrated the walls and his desire for answers knew no boundaries or moral code.

He watched her with disdain. "Thank you? Whatever for?"

She paused and lifted her gaze to him. "For the cage. You built it with Yuuto. I wondered endlessly who had created such a place, but I was blinded by my desire to get out that I never considered the ability necessary for its making. You and Yuuto are the only ones capable of constructing something so hellish." She took in her surroundings with a sigh. "Given that you've inherited all this, you should've had access to Kisuke's research on me."

"I'll have you know that it was my genius alone that developed your prison and not the terrible excuse for research of that man," he snapped.

Kazuye shrugged. "Well, whatever it was, I suppose that it satisfied some of your curiosity concerning my people, or rather, me."

"You're quite the specimen. I'm surprised you're still alive. Perhaps, the damage is elsewhere?" He tapped the side of his head and she gritted her teeth. "The data was useful, but I would have preferred to cut you open."

"Well, you're in luck, I'm here to make you a proposition," Kazuye said, closing the distance between them. The beeping of the computers as they processed data surrounded them like the buzz of a beehive. "I need help."

He scrunched his face up. "And what makes you think I'd help the likes of you?"

"The nahualli are so secretive. I doubt you had your fill with what little data you collected from your cage over the last two decades. I may have caused a ruckus at first, but the later years were very stale."

Mayuri grimaced.

"There's something I want and I want it badly, but I don't have the resources to acquire it. That's where you'll come in. The Shinigami Research and Development Institute boasts a lot of useful connections." His expression hadn't changed. "Don't worry, you'll be generously compensated. I expect there will be a lot of resistance in getting what I want, so I'll leave you to do whatever you want with my enemies."

The glint in his honey golden eyes hinted that she had snatched his attention, but he narrowed them in suspicion. "You're exasperating."

"It will be a simple give-and-take relationship."

"You have nothing to give."

"You said you would have rather cut me open," she reminded him. "I am inviting you to do so."

Mayuri laughed. "You're a stupid girl."

"Your unsavory experiments won't kill me. Someone already took a sword to my chest last night and I have nothing to show for it. Not even a scar. I cannot die."

"Nonsense."

"You and Yuuto designed a prison that used my abilities against me. I died a thousand times in that cage. I deconstructed my body over and over and over until I became an ache so deep within the very core of my soul that the room rippled with my spirit, moaned with my pain, and pieced me back together. It was agonizingly slow. It took weeks the first time. I was thought to be dead. You must have received the data that confirmed it. I don't remember what happened. I swam in a blackness so cold my bones hurt and spoke to the Old God who walked in my shadow. I woke up in one piece. The human body is a complex thing. I read many books on anatomy growing up, devoured more after I was expelled from the Shinōreijutsuin, but I understood them. Eventually. It made sense that if I could deconstruct my body until I was a mass of atoms, then I could do the opposite."

Annoyance marred his twisted visage. "You developed regenerative abilities?"

"Regeneration implies renewal. New cells, new bones, new everything. I'm not making anything new. I'm working with the same pieces that I started with and I am putting them back into place. Everything is the same. Down to the last detail. This is my body's optimal composition. However, I don't know if that is necessarily one hundred percent true. It begs the question: can my optimal composition change? How? Why? And what makes it do so? Or even, why not? So, Kurotsuchi Mayuri, work with me and I'll let you unravel the secrets of my powers. What do you say?"

Mayuri pondered it. Silence filled the space and she grew anxious.

"You better not regret it, runt."

* * *

Kazuye returned to Fifth Division and went to the site of her old home. She slipped into the back of the house where her garden once blossomed throughout the year. She crouched down in front of a barren patch of earth and remembered the hours Souko spent helping her water the plants during Kazuye's stubborn growing spurts.

Mayuri had not given her the opportunity to look around the Shinigami Research and Development Institute for signs of her grimoires, but he had offered her an answer in regards to the missing captains and lieutenants, curt as it was. Kisuke and the commander of the Kidōshū broke some laws and were sentenced to prison while the captains and lieutenants were sentenced to death for committing the taboo of attempting to acquire Hollow powers. She pieced together the parts that Sōsuke and Gin failed to tell her. The one researching ways to break the barriers between shinigami and hollow was Sōsuke. He showed her that sphere he created a long time ago, but it didn't work the way he wanted it to. She wasn't wrong in accusing him of knowing more than he said, but a part of her feared that when he considered the captains and lieutenants dead, he wasn't lying.

None of this led her to an answer as to where Souko was. Hollowfication would kill a nahualli instantly.

Did she go with Kisuke when he escaped? He had to have gotten away. Mayuri never indicated the possibility that Kisuke had died or been imprisoned, which meant he had gotten away. She didn't sense Shihōin Yoruichi's spiritual energy anywhere and assumed she must have helped him go. It didn't take a genius to realize where they could have run off to and with Kisuke there, they were safe from discovery.

If Souko went, it was better. It wouldn't be fair to keep her. Shackle her more. Kazuye had burdened her for far too long.

Kazuye grabbed a handful of soil. It was no longer rich in nutrients. Nothing could grow. It needed to mend. That took time.

She planned to find Kisuke in the Human World once she severed her ties to life in Soul Society. The possibility that she could reunite with Souko delighted her. To see her again. To wrap her arms around her and feel the comfort of her hands rubbing circles over her back.

"If you would like your old accommodations, you only need to ask."

Kazuye looked over her shoulder at Sōsuke as he paused beside her. She shook her head.

"I think you'd feel better if I stayed close."

"You have been wandering around a lot today."

"Curious?"

"Tell me."

She stood up and turned to him. "What happened to Shinji?"

Sōsuke smiled, not the usual curve of his lips, but a more sinister one. She sensed his annoyance change the environment around them, electrified the air between them. "Are you not satisfied with the truth? He is dead."

"Yes, but why? What did you do?" she pressed.

"Why don't you tell me what you know?"

"The Hollowfication experiments you were conducting in Rukongai. You used them on him, on Sarugaki, and the other missing captains and lieutenants then blamed it on Kisuke and that Kidōshū commander."

"They were interesting test subjects, I will admit."

Kazuye took him by his haori. "Why would you do this?"

"I saw an opportunity and took it," he replied simply, prying her hand free of his haori. "It rid me of some troublesome individuals, though it did set me behind on one important part of my plan, but it shouldn't be an impediment for too long."

"Why did it have to be Shinji? Why?" she demanded, her heart accelerated.

He raised her chin. "I had no intention of hurting you, Lady Kazuye."

Kazuye pushed his hand away. "What about Souko? I know Kisuke left Soul Society. Did she go with him?"

"Oh, _that_ I had nothing to do with," he told her, his eyes glinting with knowledge of her dark fate. "She belongs to the darkness now."

"What does that mean?" she asked, her heart aching.

"I believe you owed someone a debt before you went to prison."

The Shisou Force. Mochizuki Izuma.

Yes, she remembered. Kazuye's brow wrinkled. If Souko belonged to the Shisou, she wouldn't be able to reach her. This fate worse than death. She caused this. To the woman she once called _nantli_ _ **[1]**_ _._

* * *

**Network.** End

* * *

[1] **Nantli** is the Nahuatl word for "mother."


	6. The Curse

_Soul Society mourned the passing of the Sayegh Queen, Yamamoto Kano. The skies darkened, lost their pale aquatic luster, and the gathering clouds stormed, the rain engraving the ground with a death song that reverberated like the powerful aftershocks of a devastating tremor._

_The cool air burned Kazuye's hot cheeks, freezing the tears upon them as they marked splitting trails down her face, and her hollow chest ached with the absence of her heart. Her stomach twisted, her innards becoming vine-like as they snaked throughout her body, working while her body grew heavy where she sat. Her garden withered—once a sprawling paradise of beautiful greens and spring flowers now bled its shapes and colors into the mud. The magic that had grown it had killed her grandmother._

_The longer she stared at the vacant space the harder it became to swallow the reality that she had killed her grandmother. She had taken too much from her. If she had never been born, her grandmother would've stayed queen of the nahualli and her marriage wouldn't have fallen apart. Kazuye's mother would've stayed in Soul Society and not abandoned it because she birthed her into existence._

_It all came down to her._

Me. The curse.

_Souko entered the room as silent as the mist forming around the house. "Your highness."_

_"How long?" asked Kazuye, her voice soft as a whispered breath._

_"The funerary rites for a queen last seven days. The nahualli will gather on a day governed by Quetzalcoatl and prepare a mass offering for him to send her majesty back safely into the cycle of rebirth. A white candle vigil will be held to honor her for her protection and contribution to our community every night until the final night where anyone that wishes to speak in gratitude of her will be welcomed to do so. On the final day, a large ceremony including a feast will be held to celebrate her life that will conclude in her cremation."_

_"Can I go?"  Kazuye glimpsed at Souko standing behind her, clothed in a black kimono, and noted the way that her bright eyes darkened as they lowered to the ground, unable to look at her._ Does she blame me too?

_Souko flinched. "Your highness, I could never blame you! You did not do this!"_

_"Everyone blames me. Isn't that why I'm here?" Kazuye returned her gaze outdoors to the foggy garden, listening to the rush of the water as it splattered over the roof.  
_

_Souko said nothing. Over and over again, Souko's mind repeated the same words._ **I don't know what to say. What should I say? How can I say it?**

_"It's okay," said Kazuye, remembering her grandmother's last words. She was the last Sayegh Shaman. She was strong. She could be strong. She had to be. Alone in a house for who knows how long. Until the Elders decided it was okay for her to leave—_ and go where? _"I'm going to be okay. You don't have to worry about me anymore. With gran gone, the Rais have no need to stay in this house. Everyone else packed their things and left in the morning before the rain started."_

_"I'm not going anywhere."_

_Kazuye laughed almost, self-deprecatingly. She was too nice. Lying to her as she was. She must've seemed so pitiful. "Okay."_

_"This isn't pity." Souko's voice was stern. "I'm not leaving your side."_

_Kazuye pressed her forehead to the cold windowsill wood. "You don't have to stay."_

_"I want to stay."_

_"Don't lie to me!" she cried. "Everyone hates me! Even you! I know it!"_

_Souko rushed to her side and jerked her around. She sank to her knees, her cheeks flaring red and her eyes watering. "Don't say such stupid things!" she snapped, startling Kazuye. "I know that I had fearful thoughts when I first entered into your grandmother's service because of you, but I didn't know you yet. I've cared for you since you were an infant and I watched you grow. I know what kind of person you are." Watching Souko's tears cascade like the rainwater outside stunned her into silence. "I could never hate you. How could you ever say such a thing to me? How could you ask me to leave you? You're all I have left."_

All I have left…

_Kazuye threw her arms around Souko, the emotion rattling through her was so powerful that she could not contain the loud ringing of her sobs._

\

The needle stuck in the vein near the bend of her arm had started to bruise the skin around it. A half-empty bag strung from a tiny silver hook on a stand swelled as it drained her blood. The room came alive with the sounds from the different machines monitoring her body's vital signs, logging even the slightest fluctuation in them.

A timid boy with shoulder length brown hair sat on a steel stool next to the table, his gaze on the machine measuring her spiritual energy, observing the different readings and writing observations into a sheet on his clipboard.

"Can you talk now, Lady Hisame?" said Tsubokura Rin.

She tore her thoughts from memories of Souko, the guilt had started to claw at her insides.

"Do you know why the nahualli can't wield a zanpakutō?" asked Kazuye, her voice hoarse as she reclined over a cold lab table dripping blood to the ground. Her tongue was a strange, numb appendage in her mouth that fumbled her words, condensing the sounds beyond her control. The red smeared across the bottom half of her mouth had dried and started to fleck.

Mayuri stored the organs he tore from her in jars contained with a thick liquid meant to preserve them and poured over a journal of notes where he brainstormed new experiments.

Akon watched in morbid fascination as the last of the incisions on her body healed after he threw the filthy utensils into a tub of disinfectant.

He had drawn close to six bags of blood from her in exchange of his spiritual energy and listened. He held a damp cloth in his hand meant to wash her clean as the morning dragged on.

Rin looked up at Akon then back to Kazuye, his face frozen in perpetual fright. "I thought they were able to," he said quietly. "The Zakuro Squad carries swords."

"The nahualli have a root ability," said Akon. "It is a power tailored to its user, much like a zanpakutō."

"Oh? What's yours?" asked Rin, smiling eagerly.

"I never talk about my root ability." The reparations within her body completed, every final stitch in its rightful place, but the steady depletion of blood clouded her mind. She remained unmoving. "Yuuto gave it a name and sealed the information away in the N.A.C. I heard the files on my Six Gifts was classified. Only accessible through special permission. Is there a way to get a list of who has accessed or tried to access my N.A.C. files?"

"Your tongue certainly regenerated quickly," Mayuri observed with contempt. "Faster than the first time I extracted it." His eyes narrowed before he surprised her by forcing his fingers into her mouth to grasp her tongue and pulled it out. He rubbed his thumb over the surface as she muffled a complaint, metal and blood scraped over her taste buds, setting them ablaze. "Any noticeable differences? Sensitivity aside?"

He released her.

"No. It should be as it was. Or would you like to cut it out again to be sure?"

He huffed. "Well, are you going to talk about your root ability?"

"It wasn't in Kisuke's notes?" she asked, grinning. Wherever the research was there had to be a chance that her grimoires were with it.

"I do not refer to that vile man's research. This is my own."

"Do you have what I asked for?" Kazuye rose from her seat, pulling the needle from her vein and handing the bloody thing to Akon. She stopped the bleeding and closed the wound, healing the bruises that blemished her skin. "I think you've enough blood to last you for months."

"There." Mayuri gestured to a file stuffed with papers. "Explain it to her, then get her out. I'm going."

"Yes."

Rin jumped out of his seat. "I didn't get to hand over my notes!" He rushed out after Mayuri, waving around a heap of papers over his head. "Captain!"

"He won't be too keen in helping you if you keep bringing up Urahara," advised Akon, handing Kazuye a red folder.

"Oh, he'll live." Kazuye flipped through the pages swiftly. The folder held varying maps of Soul Society, diagrams and lists that logged every detail on _iztlacyoh oquichyollohtli **[1]**_.

"Why do you want access to something especially toxic to nahualli?" asked Akon, eyeing her with justified suspicion.

"School project," Kazuye replied with a smile. "Oh, but _iztlactli_ [2] is just as harmful to Soul Society. That's why there's a whole order dedicated to cleaning it up 'cause if it infects a normal resident, it finds a way to corrode their spirit chains and turns them into Hollow."

"I am aware."

"We use spiritual energy for many things in a world made up of spirit particles and that leaves behind a lot of waste. That waste becomes a plague if left alone and it disrupts the balance of this world. An unbalanced world is one in chaos. The nahualli are keepers of that peace. The Sayegh line in Soul Society and the Mzali line in the Human World." She looked at him and smiled. "Sorry for boring you with all the technical stuff."

"Seems you have no intention of telling me why you want to know all the known sites of _iztlactli_."

"As a nahualli princess, I should do my part for the environment," Kazuye offered. "I mean, if I didn't do this much for the sake of my people, I wouldn't make a good queen."

"The nahualli already have a leader."

"Yeah, but for how long."

"That's pretty treasonous of you."

"Thanks."

Kazuye took a clean robe with her on her way out of the lab, but her movements were heavily monitored. She memorized the position of the remaining security cameras on that floor. Next time, she would complete a scrying spellwork to aid in her search.

* * *

"You returned showered again today."

Kazuye's hair had started to dry into black spiraling curls and moved with her as she looked at Sōsuke. "Well, aren't you observant?"

"What are you doing?" he asked, taking a moment to drink from the cup of tea before him. His office was empty and orderly, all of the paperwork completed for the day as the sun descended from the sky, its colors bursting behind the buildings surrounding them a misty blue and coral pink bleeding into one another into violet.

"What makes you think that I'm doing anything at all?" Kazuye went to sit in the couch, draping her arms over its cushioned back to maintain eye contact.

"You're supposed to stay out of trouble."

She sensed a prickle in the nape of her neck and jerked around. _Finally._ "Gin is coming."

It took some time for Gin to complete the trip, but he entered the office with Yuuto following a few steps behind him.

Sōsuke rose from his seat with an amenable smile. "Good afternoon, Akizuki, what brings you outside of Ilhuicatl?"

"Well, I was wondering if I could borrow, Lady Hisame." Yuuto smiled at her brightly. "I believe I promised you breakfast."

Kazuye left her seat and went to Sōsuke, reaching out to touch his arm as she forced a genuine smile on her lips. "I'll see you tonight, Sōsuke."

"Be safe, Lady Kazuye." His gaze lingered on her long after she exited the room with the chief and she bit down on her chapped bottom lip.

Yuuto took her to a diner that served the fluffiest pancakes that she had ever tasted. Their selection was so enormous that she ordered five different dishes. Each one wowed her as their server set them down on the table's surface between them, the soft pancakes topped with different fruits and drizzled with cream and assorted honey flavors.

"Well, Lady Hisame, I don't suppose you simply wanted to go out for pancakes with me," said Yuuto, strands of his soft light blue hair fell over his bright amber eye.

"What took you so long?" asked Kazuye. "I sent Gin to deliver my message almost two months ago."

"With you out of confinement, things haven't been as peaceful in Ilhuicatl," replied Yuuto. "Plus, it'd be best for us to avoid any glaring attention. We're old friends, people know that, and it will be easy for the queen to assume that I'm meeting you to show my loyalty for you."

"So? You are."

"It would be best not to provoke her so obviously."

Kazuye shrugged. "She shouldn't be so easy to provoke. How does she expect to be the leader of a whole community of nahualli if she's losing her cool over one little girl?"

"You're not just any ordinary little girl, Lady Hisame," Yuuto commented. "You're a nahualli princess and your power was rumored to rival her own since you were a child, long before you came into your root ability. You're the realest threat that she has ever faced to her authority, even more than your grandmother when she was still alive."

The one way to ease the queen's paranoia would be for Kazuye to embrace the permanence of death and she had a few reservations on the matter.

"So, what is this I hear about a romance with Aizen Sōsuke?" asked Yuuto, a grin sprawling across his lips. She sensed his eagerness to change the subject in the teasing tenor of his voice.

"That is exactly why I wanted to see you."

"Your romance?"

"Yes, I'm curious to determine how short of a leash I'm working with as a freed felon."

"Well, shoot." He entwined his fingers together, elbows on the table. "I'd be happy to help you."

"Sōsuke wishes to offer me some security since my reputation is lacking—something to ease my way of life," started Kazuye. "In short, he asked me to marry him."

Yuuto blinked. "Seriously? Congratulations."

"I can get married?"

"If it's what you want, yes." Yuuto dropped his hands. "The queen and the Elders will oppose, so the decision would be on what the Prophetic Sisters have to say on the matter."

"So, I need permission?"

"Exiled or not, you're royalty and the last of your Witchline. The line needs to continue, so who you marry is very important and they will want to have a say in the matter, even if they'd rather you die a pitiful spinster. Of course, given your birthright, you will need the approval of the Prophetic Sisters as well."

She almost smiled. The queen and the Elders would never approve and a meeting with the Prophetic Sisters was so hard to acquire that it bought her enough time to get away. Of course, Souko being in the Shisou Force presented an unforeseen complication, but it wouldn't be long for her to gain access to all of her abilities. With that, she'd be able to get her out.

"If the Prophetic Sisters give you their blessing, opposition from the queen and the Elders won't matter, but there's a chance that they might require a Binding Ceremony. Most high-ranking individuals do."

"A Binding Ceremony? I've never heard of that before."

"Its purpose is to create a unique bond between partners," he told her. "After the marriage is performed by a high priestess, you make a vow and perform a ritual to exchange spiritual energy to make your energies similar."

She lowered her fork, mouth agape. "Wouldn't that neutralize our abilities against one another?"

"Exactly."

"Do all marriages have to have a Binding Ceremony?" she asked, her voice higher than normal.

"Not all of them. Only the ones that the Prophetic Sisters choose."

"You said high-ranking, right? So, it might be fifty-fifty given that I'm royalty and Sōsuke is not, right?"

"Not birth rank. Spiritual. You are a shaman-level, queen candidate and Aizen is a captain-level shinigami. I would say it's about seventy percent possible with you being the full fifty."

Horrified, she asked, "But why?"

"It's a ritual," said Yuuto. "There is powerful, ancient magic in arrays like that that are meant to help the next generation. The Prophetic Sisters only request it when they foresee that the couple's offspring has a higher chance of inheriting either parents' ability or if it would create a combination of the two."

That sounded like a horrifying experience to have with Sōsuke. "Children?"

"The Prophetic Sisters don't always ask for a Binding Ceremony. The last one was centuries ago when your grandmother married the Captain-Commander. Chances are they won't even mention it and let you go ahead with a normal ceremony." Yuuto looked down at her plates of food. "You stopped eating. Are you really that paranoid about it?"

Kazuye realized she had dropped her fork and picked it up, digging into her pancakes. "I was just surprised by this."

"Think of it logically. Your ability is Wishcasting. Even without the Binding Ceremony, your progeny has a slim chance of inheriting it or an evolved version of it or something within the same branch family. Then, there's Aizen. His is a water-type zanpakutō. It's so incompatible to yours that it would be more likely that your kid gets a completely new ability if not yours or a branch of yours."

She wondered if it mattered that the whole water zanpakutō was a sham. It probably did. It seemed pretty incompatible, too, though, but it was the least of her worries.

"So, is this marriage purely convenience?" asked Yuuto.

"Sōsuke is very kind," she answered. "He's willing to go so far in order to offer me some form of security. It's hard to say no to that. It isn't as if my life here will improve because my sentence was overturned. There are people out there that view me as a monster and he wants to give me some peace of mind."

The convenience went hand in hand with Sōsuke's plans and her role in them, but the Binding Ceremony worried her. If they were asked to perform it, they would be impervious to one another. That had to be the real reason for his proposition. He wanted to eliminate her from ever being a threat against him.

"He's the type," said Yuuto, then grinned, "but he's always had a soft spot for you, so I suppose I'm not surprised. The rumor has been around since before you were imprisoned."

"That we're seeing each other?"

"Yeah."

"That is ridiculous, I was never." Her cheeks burned red, but his expression didn't change. "I'm serious."

"Are you sure? You look awfully embarrassed."

She stuffed her mouth full of pancakes.

"I thought you were in love with him," admitted Yuuto, his gaze distance as if he were recalling the moment that had given him that idea. "Even when you were seeing Enma, I thought you were in love with him. I always thought you two were very similar."

"Enma and I?"

"No, you and Aizen. You have that look about you."

Her eyebrows furrowed. "What look?"

"Like you were lonely." Yuuto shrugged. "Maybe I'm just imagining things. My Rais ability has always been pretty weak compared to my others, but sometimes, you two just gave off the feeling that you were less alone together. That's it, really. I mean, I know you idolized him. You talked about him incessantly. How smart he was, what books he recommended you, what you talked about together, and how he seemed very sophisticated drinking tea."

Yuuto laughed.

Kazuye lowered her fork. "Is that so?"

"Yeah," he answered. "Well, all of the Ilhuicatl lords are scandalized over the fact that you're sharing a room with him. I'm sure you'll enjoy knowing it."

She sensed he changed the subject for her sake, but the words he said about being less alone together continued repeating in her mind. She appreciated the gesture, but she felt all the more confused about things. "Well, they'll be happy to know that there is nothing scandalous happening in that room."

Yuuto narrowed his eyes, the wry smile on his lips deepened. "Are you sure you don't like him?"

She brushed aside the question. "There's something else."

"Are you changing the subject because you're embarrassed?" he teased.

"No, this is serious." She wiped her mouth clean of sticky maple sauce and pancake crumbs. "I need to speak to Mochizuki Izuma."

Yuuto inhaled sharply at the sound of the man's name, his shoulders tensed. "Why?"

"Why do you think?"

He swallowed visibly, his Adam's apple trembling. "Nakajima Souko. How do you know?"

"Do you know what happened?" asked Kazuye, her heart racing in anticipation. He appeared hesitant. "Tell me."

Her voice rang higher than she intended. People in the diner turned their heads in her direction. The room stilled. She could hear a leaky faucet. The sound of Yuuto's heart thumping wildly in his chest and the blood pumping through his veins.

"She didn't want to leave you."

Kazuye lowered her utensils, tapping the side of her fork against the half-eaten dish. "I have to speak with him."

"There's nothing we can do."

"I'm not going to leave Souko to him. I'm not. I just need to get his attention."

"It won't be easy," said Yuuto. "You're going to have to do something big to catch his eye."

* * *

Kazuye ambled through Fifth Division's streets when Gin stepped out into the moonlit path with a wide smile.

"Long night?" he asked, obstructing her path as she tried to slip past him.

"Were you waiting for me?" asked Kazuye, smiling up at him. "Want to have another stab at me?"

"Nah, the cap'n's around. I doubt he'd appreciate it if he found you skewered again," he replied. "He won't believe you're amnesiac. You'd definitely be hiding something."

"Do you think I tell him everything?" asked Kazuye.

"Don't ya?"

She shrugged. "It ain't his business what I do, who I do, where I do things, why I do them, and how they get done. And if someone tries to kill me, that's on me."

"Figured he was involved in every aspect of your life," said Gin. "Yer a hot item if he's protecting you. What's yer power? What do you gotta offer?"

"That information is classified."

"What does the cap'n want from you?"

"Beats me. I don't ask." Kazuye shifted her weight onto her left and folded her arms over her chest. "If you want answers from me you're going to have to be a little honest and tell me why you wanted to off me."

"Doesn't seem like a fair trade."

Kazuye poked him square in the chest. "You better not plan to kill me again. We'll get along better if we can just agree to that."

"Sounds good."

Kazuye searched the surroundings, but there were only buildings shining under the silver glow of the moon. She couldn't sense Sōsuke, but then again, she doubted she'd be able to pinpoint his location when she felt so disoriented. "Where is Sōsuke?"

"He went on a walk with some woman."

"What woman?" she snapped, her stomach twisting into a knot.

Gin's smile twitched at the edges. "Jealous?"

"No."

"Threatened?" Gin sidled up next to her and pressed his arm into hers, looking out into the same street that she was searching for even a hint of Sōsuke's outline. "With all the rumors going around that he's going to get married, there are lots of ladies turning up trying to make a lasting impression—anything to change his mind about marrying someone like you."

She repeated the words. "Someone like me."

A curse. The downward spiral was dark. Those words were an incantation of ill wish. Hurled at her as she walked the learning halls of the Tlaminqui School with her head bowed, eyes chasing the fine wood under her feet, and her black curls shielding her face. Classmates avoided speaking to her, terrified that she could hex them if they did as their parents said, and the ones brave enough to shout at her from across corridors or classrooms were those that had realized that she feared them. Raised in captivity, like an animal up for slaughter. People abhorred her without ever having met her.

The quality in the air changed. Something in the wind. She sensed it unfurling like a crumpled paper in an open flame. But she ignored it. Her ecological perception heightened because of the inebriation. She ignored it. _Probably a tree falling somewhere_ , she decided.

"Your rosettes are showing."

Kazuye frowned. "Stop teasing me!"

Gin chuckled. "Well, what can you do?"

"I don't care what he does."

"Yeah? You look upset."

"I just don't like being teased."

Gin stepped back. "Why don't you come have a drink with me? I'm buying."

Kazuye forced the odd cluster of emotions blooming inside of her into a dark corner where she hoped they drowned in the alcohol she planned to imbibe. Sōsuke was free to do as he wanted. He was perfectly capable of handling things privately. And she didn't care if he was hanging around other women, let alone sleeping with them. She wasn't his woman. They had an arrangement, but it wasn't romantic or physical. It was business.

She didn't care.

"Gin, Lady Kazuye."

Her heart swayed with the sound of his voice. Sōsuke spoke her name as if he treasured it.

She swore she didn't care.

Kazuye and Gin stopped mid-walk.

The woman at Sōsuke's side was a vision of quiet elegance and utter loveliness. Her golden-blond hair was clipped back, half up and half down, and it fell straight across her back, glossy in the moonlight unlike hers that was frizzy and curly, unmanageable unless braided or rolled up in a bun. Her eyes were round, their blue shade as bright as aquamarines, and her pale lashes long and curled. Even in her shihakusho, her body was killer. Toned, curved in the right places, and it made Kazuye very conscious of herself. Short, hips were too wide, skeletal.

Kazuye's heart seized up and her stomach hollowed out. The power coursing through her neutralized.

"Hiya, cap'n, Miss Ozawa," Gin greeted. "Fancy running into both of you so late."

"I could say the same thing," said Sōsuke, approaching them with his lady friend half a step behind. "I hope you're both staying out of trouble."

"We're going to get a drink," announced Kazuye, wrapping an arm around Gin's and drawing it close.

"A drink?" Sōsuke smiled down at Ozawa, who blushed so obviously Kazuye wanted to tell her to stop acting like a teenage girl in love. "Would you mind if we joined you?"

"Not at all, cap'n."

She minded! Her grip on Gin's arm tightened, her nails dug into his skin through the sleeve of his shihakusho.

"Ow, Kazuye, if you want to hold hands, you should just say it." Gin forced his hand free of her grip as she glared at him and took her by the hand, enjoying himself. "You don't need to be so shy."

"I'm not being shy." She jerked her hand free of his. "And I don't want to hold hands."

"Lady Kazuye." Sōsuke gestured to the woman beside him after drawing her gaze to her and continued to speak, "This is Ozawa Mayumi, one of the Fourteenth Seats in my division. Miss Ozawa, this is the Lady Hisame Kazuye, the princess of Ilhuicatl."

Mayumi bowed deeply, almost apologetically that she had not done so upon seeing her, and said, "It's a pleasure to meet you, princess."

Gin snorted.

"Lady Hisame is fine," said Kazuye.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it." Kazuye led Gin away. "Let's go. I know a good place that serves good snacks."

* * *

Kazuye clung to Gin after they left the bar and insisted on staying with him. She slurred her words, her mind hazed like a morning mist gathering in front of a shore, and she struggled to stay upright without teetering off balance so she leaned on Gin.

"We have to go before they come out," she demanded, jerking him toward the road outside the quiet bar.

"You sure you don't wanna sleep in your own place?"

"No." She tugged him forward harder than she intended and he collided into her hard enough to knock her down. "Gin!"

Gin laughed as he reached over to lift her. "You're stronger than you look."

"Lady Hisame, are you okay?" Mayumi reached them swiftly, moving to her side and taking her by the arm to help Gin. Kazuye pulled her arm free of the woman, aware of her attempts at seeming capable in front of the captain that she admired. "Do you live far? Maybe it's on my way, I can take you home, make sure that you make it there safely."

"Lady Kazuye is staying in the barracks," said Sōsuke politely. "I'll be taking her home, you needn't worry."

"I'm staying with Gin today," she stated. "We're going to keep drinking."

"Gin, see Miss Ozawa home, I'll take care of Lady Kazuye."

"Well, Miss Ozawa, shall we?"

Gin released her to Sōsuke and walked beside a reluctant Mayumi, who looked back to her captain with a desire to have him call out for her and change his mind, walk her instead, leave Kazuye in Gin's care. She smiled amicably at Gin and engaged him in conversation.

"If you overindulge, your control will weaken," commented Sōsuke.

Kazuye's eyebrows knitted. "Who is she?"

"She's my subordinate."

"Do you go on evening walks with all of your subordinates?"

"Not usually."

"Did you plan to take her home?" she demanded, the alcohol in her burned the walls of her skin. "Bed her?"

"Are you jealous, Lady Kazuye?"

She hated the small smile on his lips. The knowing tone of his question as if she were frothing at the mouth for the chance to have him. It sparked her ire.

"I don't care what you do, but I do care if it's going to be an inconvenience to me. Where did you expect me to go?"

"Go wherever you like. After two months, you are capable of taking care of yourself."

She took him by the collar of his haori. "I will not be humiliated by you in this manner."

Sōsuke tugged her hand free of his coat. "You are causing a scene."

"I won't marry you if you believe that I would be okay with this for even a second. Do what you will now, but don't think I will stand for it later."

She whirled around so quickly that vertigo nearly knocked her off her feet. She stumbled forward until she righted herself and stormed toward the public bathhouse. It stayed open fairly late and the old woman that owned it would be kind enough to let her stay if she asked nicely—or charmed her. It didn't matter. She had no plans of returning home. No, not home. That wasn't her home. She didn't have one of those.

Kazuye fumbled through the emptied-out streets when the hairs in the back of her neck rose and the winds whispered a curse in her ear. She jerked around as a shadow fell across her face and the sharp end of a dagger cut through her shoulder. A gasp escaped her cracked lips and her vision whirled out of focus.

/

_"They're curses," said Kazuye, pouring over the opened cobalt blue grimoire. The desk light flooded the metal table and the tinkering at her back stopped._

_"I assumed as much," said Kisuke, hovering over her. "How do you figure?"_

_"It is in the blood," she replied, running her finger under a set of pictographs. "He repeats this phrase over and over throughout this section and I thought it was just the ramblings of an old man or even a reference to the price paid for these courses, but"—she lifted her eyes to him, his gaze hardened on the black-ink spread on the open grimoire—"I think he means our blood."_

_"The royal line?"_

_"No, generally. The Sayegh Witchline." She hoisted herself up and tucked her leg under her, shifting her weight entirely onto the table. "The Seven Witchlines have different specialties. The Akram are healers, the Zahir are scientists, the Rais are mentalists, the Mzali are experts in creation, the Qasim have their physical strength, and the Nasr are versed in the elements, and the Sayegh can learn high-level spellwork with ease. It's never made sense to me growing up that our specialty wasn't unique since all the other Witchlines are perfectly capable of performing high-level spellwork. So, I thought about it. Consider this, the Mzali and Sayegh are opposites. Both royal lines, but our abilities should also reflect that. So, if they're creators, then we are death. If they are capable of good, then we are capable of bad. The curses in my great-grandfather's grimoire aren't research, they're a guidebook to the knowledge he inherited from our ancestors back before curseology was made forbidden."_

_"You believe you're capable of doing these spells?" asked Kisuke, his tone lowered._

_"If I wanted to," she said, shrugging. The ritual array in front of her spread across two pages. Incantations for it were designed to strengthen it and were unique to the curse-bearer, so one required an object that had been in their possession. The price paid was nothing compared to the consequences the recipient bore: soul and body link. What happened to the user happened to the curse-bearer times ten. If the user died, so did the bearer. "You can't stop yourself from something that comes naturally to you, right? It's in my blood."_

\

Pain exploded across the open wound and the blood soaked the ground as Kazuye hunched forward. She pressed her palm against the gushing injury, life leaving her at an accelerated rate, the surprise of the attack slowed her body's ability to reconstruct the severed veins.

She grabbed hold of her attacker, a faceless entity wielding a jagged-edged knife with a deep-rooted hatred sown in place of its heart. It had no spiritual energy. No way for anyone to have seen it coming apart from the ecological system rejecting its unnatural existence. It had a single purpose in mind—relieving it by getting rid of the reason for it.

The humanoid creature lodged the knife deep into her entrails with the second strike. It planned to hack her open by the way it jerked back at the weapon, but she trapped it by reconstructing over the knife to steady it between her bones and muscle, welcomed the metal to reside within her organs and sapped at the very material for more power.

"I am not in the mood!" she snapped and covered its faceless head with her hand as it struggled to release the knife. She channeled all of her spiritual energy into her hand, turning it into heat. Smoke rose from its melting black head and it let out an ungodly scream that echoed far down the streets as it fell away in black chunks on the ground until she exposed its core—a shining green crystal creaking as its face filled with cracks. She ripped it from its melted center and crushed it in her hands.

Without a core, the creature dropped on the ground an empty, half-melted husk.

She hit the ground with her knees and took the black handle of the knife as Sōsuke appeared, his gaze falling on the shell before regarding the rest of their surroundings. He picked her up and wrapped a single arm around her, allowing her to lean on him as her blood soaked into his uniform. The numbing from the adrenaline dissipated and the pain returned. She didn't have the pinpoint concentration needed to flood her brain with endorphins to ease her ailing and she didn't want to risk it.

Sōsuke drew his sword and as he uttered the command, she pressed her bloodied hand on the handle behind his, closing her eyes to the sound of his voice. There were others around, likely having caught the end of this until Sōsuke twisted their reality. She wondered what they believed to have seen instead as she looked up at Sōsuke, her vision starting to split into many.

He took her into a sitting room where he rested her on her side as slowly as possible.

"You need to pull it out," she said through gritted teeth.

Sōsuke pressed a hand to her mouth and removed the dagger with ease, succeeding in muffling her scream. "Channel."

She clutched at the hand over her mouth and drew from him as much spiritual energy required to reconstruct the damage in her body. The blood flow eased until the puddle underneath her stopped growing. Her muscle re-grew, her organs repaired, the bone mended its scrapes, new blood cells were mass produced, and the skin stitched together seamlessly. She released him and sucked in a breath, her heart hammering as wild as a rattled bird in a cage.

Her eyes glazed, brightened with tears that painted narrow rivulets down her face, and her sore body quivered as she fixed her gaze to the ground, to the blood soaking into her robes and deepening their color.

Sōsuke wrapped her up in his haori and the genuine kindness of the gesture warmed her until she considered the reason why he had done it. An unstable partner meant sloppy work. Any kindness was meant to soothe her, keep her sane and grounded.

Kazuye grabbed hold of his shihakusho's sleeve. She sunk into him, her forehead pressed into his forearm.

He opened up and she wrapped herself up in him, quaking in her new skin as the powdered crystal in her hand shone against the ruby red of her blood. It contained the only hint of who had sent the creature after her and she absorbed it, tasted the vile spiritual energy that birthed the monstrosity and knew there were more bleeding out from the shadows waiting their turn.

Had Sōsuke lingered behind even a moment later, they would have skewered her.

She lacked the power to curse their user, but Sōsuke had plenty. She moved from him and used the blood on the ground as ink to draw a curse on the wooden floors. She bound it in a circle to make it unbreakable and uttered into the incantation a thousand names, each stronger than the first.

"You will feel this," Kazuye said, taking Sōsuke's hand and with her touch, she relieved him of enough energy to power the curse as his grip on her tightened. The blood emitted smoke as it soared into the wood a black mark that would never fade where it glowed eerily white like the light wrapped around a fading apparition. "It's ready."

She reached around to draw his sword from its scabbard and stepped in front of him. His eyes shone behind the glare of his glasses. His spiritual energy surged through her untapped and left her body as her own to fuel the curse. She pointed the end of the zanpakutō to her chest.

The moon illuminated the room from the door at a slightly crooked angle, its silver light shining in the shattered crystal. Even the creatures silenced, beholden of a power that contradicted nature.

"Kill me," she whispered, her lips sticky and red with blood.

His hand cupped the nape of her neck, holding her steady. She trusted that he would ensure the pain was brief.

A kindness? For her sake. Keep her happy, her power remains his. Upset her too badly and he would chase her away. Easy.

_Kyōka Suigetsu_ tore through her back and fresh blood splattered across the curse, dissolving into it.

Death took her before her body hit the glowing circle, but when she did, she gasped with new life.

The curse was complete.

* * *

**The Curse.** End 

* * *

 [1] **Iztlacyoh Oquichyollohtli** refers to residual spiritual energy shed from failed spellwork and kidō spells. **Iztlacyoh** is the Nahuatl word for " _poisonous"_ and **oquichyollohtli** is " _energy_."

[2] **Iztlactli** is the Nahuatl word for " _poison._ " It is being used as a short form of the toxic energy.


	7. Will you kiss me now?

Kazuye extracted the _iztlactli_ from the sitting room where she had cast the curse and bottled it into glass mason jars that Gin had donated to her cause. Her stomach twisted with discomfort and her body felt heavy as she stored the jars into a wooden box.

Curses wore the body down. She had never cursed anyone before, but it had come to her so simply. She had been right in assuming that the Sayegh Witchline's specialty was curseology. It felt more natural than breathing until the aftereffects struck. Touched by death only briefly, she had become feverish upon resurrection, her body shook and ached as if all of her bones had been snapped. She unraveled and healed, repeatedly, until the medicine had gone down without pulsing back up with the bile in her stomach. Once the convulsions stopped, her body returned to normal, but by then, she had no time for rest.

Sōsuke entered the room with a candid smile. Bright as sunlight. His personable alter ego continued to dazzle her even now and she berated herself for feeling the pull of his gravity.

"I was just informed that the Eglantine Order will have a team over to investigate a mass _iztlactli_ outbreak documented by the Winterbloom Order late last night," he told her, his hands tucked into the sleeves of his haori. "They want the building emptied and quarantined until they clear it."

"They won't find anything." Kazuye picked up the heavy box with little strain. "This needs to be frozen somewhere isolated. I don't have an affinity for ice, but if you know someone that does, send them my way."

"What do you plan to do with that poison?" asked Sōsuke.

"I'm going to kill the queen with it," she replied on her way to the verandah.

Sōsuke caught her arm and stopped her. "You should be staying out of trouble," he said, his tone soft but stern. "The consequences of her death won't treat you kindly."

"What's the worst that can happen? Someone will attempt against my life, exile me from my community, verbal abuse, physical abuse?" Kazuye released her arm of his hold. "I'm not afraid of what happens next."

"Is that how you felt incarcerated in that cell?"

The jars in her box clinking noisily as they settled into place after her sudden halt. The bright cosmic purple of the stored malignant energy reflected strongly against the glass, glittering under the sunlight.

"Alone. Your own strength weaponized against you. Helplessly waiting on Shinji Hirako's next visit. More beast than human. Do you think that was their worst?"

Kazuye fell for his provocation. The jars shattered when the box hit the ground, the energy evaporating into the air as it escaped its confines, spreading its poison once more.

"No, I don't think that was their worst!" she snapped, "but I promise you that I won't be around to find out what is."

He didn't even flinch. "Do you plan to leave? Kill the queen and head to the Human World? Seek the other nahualli and you'll be welcomed. A nahualli princess from Soul Society. The last of her Witchline. You'll be prized and praised and allowed to live out the rest of your life in peace. That is what you desire?"

It didn't faze her to hear him reveal her desires because he knew her well enough to figure it out. That was the least of her problems. The obstacle was getting away without him paying any mind.

"Yes."

"Then, why are you still here? Do you want your grimoires? Will the spellwork contained in them help you escape? Are you planning to find Souko? Take her from the Shisou Force and make an enemy of Mochizuki Izuma. None of that matters to you, you're reckless. You don't plan effectively. You act thoughtlessly in the hopes that as long as you get what you want, you don't care about the cost. There's nothing wrong with wanting what is out of your reach, but you need to be patient."

"Patient?" She laughed deprecatingly. "This isn't about patience. You only want me to stay by your side so that you can use my power. You don't care about what I want as long as you get where you want to go."

"Tell me, Lady Kazuye, would you be pleased living in Human World in peace? Own a quaint house on a seaside cliff, grow an enviable garden, meet someone that will love you more than you'll love them, raise children, just repeat it again and again every day until your magic runs out and you grow ancient, until death comes for you and your is soul recycled—your fate refashioned."

Kazuye's lower lip trembled.

"Would that be enough to satisfy you?"

She opened her mouth to speak, but the sounds that pushed past her lips refused to take the shape of words.

Sōsuke inched closer to her, taking her face in his hands and she immediately reached up to cover them with her own. "You look like you're about to cry, Lady Kazuye. Why is that?"

"I don't know," she whispered tremulously. "I don't know."

"Wouldn't you be lonely without me?"

/

_"Has something upset you?" asked Sōsuke, approaching the verandah_

_Kazuye sat with a black journaling book on her lap and a pen clutched in her hand. The question surprised her and she lowered her gaze from the sky to her grimoire. "How can you tell?"_

_"You have a tendency of looking up when something troubles you," he said, pointing up with a soft smile._

_"Do I? I never noticed."_

_"We rarely realize such things on our own," he replied calmly. "Well, did something happen?"_

_Her cheeks warmed._

_"It seems I was mistaken," he said, "you're not upset."_

_"No, I am, well, it's complicated," she started, hesitant over her words. "Maybe not that complicated. You see…I just…met someone. Well, no, I didn't just meet them, I've known them for some time, but things are different now. You see, I really like them, but Shinji freaked out when he saw them accompanying me home. They're in the Winterbloom Order under Yuuto. His adjutant, actually."_

_"Ah, Tsutsuji Enma," said Sōsuke. "An able mystic if I remember correctly. The first of their kind to be a contender for a chief position. They seem like a responsible person, a good match for you."_

_"Well, Shinji can't seem to get that through his thick skull," she ranted. "He insists on treating me like a child. He literally just told me that I'm not allowed to date for another two decades, which is ridiculous. He says he doesn't trust Enma. That they probably want something from me. Can you believe that? They've been helping me out since I was referred to Kisuke and Yuuto. They're kind and patient and very charming."_

_"Captain Hirako is only trying to keep you safe," Sōsuke replied._

_"That's why I'm upset. It's because he insists on seeing me as the same ten-year-old girl he took in years ago and I'm not. He's too overprotective and at the rate things are going, I'm going to end up a witch stereotype. I don't want to be an old spinster running some magic shop at the edge of a forest."_

_He chuckled. "You could say the captain is naturally suspicious of everyone."_

_"Disgustingly so," she remarked with a huff. "He's been trying to keep me away from you for years. Sorry about that."_

_"I don't take offense, you needn't apologize."_

_"Enma is a good person, Sōsuke. Just like you. I just wish Shinji'd stop being so paranoid about the people around me." She sighed. "Like, I wish he'd genuinely give you a chance."_

_"We work well enough together that his mistrust isn't a hinderance, so we'll be fine."_

_"I bet he's just being stupid. Jealous or something 'cause I spend so much more time with you than I do with him."_

_"He'd protest if he heard you say that."_

_"Doesn't it bother you?" she asked, looking up at his face. "That he keeps you at arm's length. He doesn't know much about you either. Doesn't know your favorite book, your favorite food, your favorite color. He doesn't know what you do during your days off or if you're seeing anyone. You've been working together for years now. Most captains and lieutenants get along really well. Doesn't it feel lonely?"_

_The glare in his glasses obscured the fleeting emotion that flickered in his gaze, but she noticed the tension in his body as if her own muscles had gone rigid._

_"Without you around, I guess I'd feel more alone. I know there are loads of people around me that care about me and are patient with me, but none of them are like us."_

_Sōsuke's smile waned slightly. "Like us?"_

_"I don't know how to explain it, I guess." She flushed. "I feel stupid even bringing it up, but it's like we're kindred. Is that the word?"_

_"Kismet," he said._

_"Like fate?"_

_"Yes."_

_"The environment reacts differently to us. It vibrates where we roam, chitters when it tastes our spiritual energy, and it embraces us even as it means to reject us. We're like magnets. Unnatural existences. Yet our worlds try to mother us, love us so deeply they bless us." Kazuye stood up on the middle step and looked at him with a smile. "I'm happy you're alive, Sōsuke."_

_"I suppose, I feel the same way about you, Lady Kazuye."_

\

Kazuye froze.

His hands caressed her cheeks gently and moved to push her curled hair behind her ears, the pads of his fingers outlining the back of her ear until they slid under the dangling gold earrings she wore.

"Yes," she admitted, reminded of all the times that his presence had soothed the tempest inside of her. He drew her in with kindness and acceptance when she needed it the most, supported her in efforts to control her strength, helped her overcome her fear of her power, and stood by her, no matter news arose to damn her. He did it on purpose. Forced his way in because he had seen a useful asset in her magical ability and manipulated her into a friendship that preyed on her admiration for him to the point that she grew helpless. Desperate to avoid the very thought of leaving his side, especially when he sounded so earnest, like the very thought of her departure pained him.

It became so easy to forget how he had admitted many times before that his only interest in her was what her power could supply to his cause and she pledged it to him, trusting his vision. Twisting her own perception to revere him as one would a god. If she followed him, she would never be confined again. She could live knowing the warm kiss of the sun and the soft sighs of the wind, the enchanting smells that permeate the world, eat good food, and never feel alone.

_"Stand with me."_ Never alone again. _"Come with me."_ The sun a shining beacon of hope. He was the one. The savior. _"Be at my side."_

She felt fortunate for his words.

_"I will protect you."_

She had fallen for such lovely lies.

"Yes." She dropped her hands at her sides and fisted them. "But I don't want to stay here."

Sōsuke released her. "Is that what you want?"

"Yes."

"Very well. I will help you leave."

Kazuye's mouth dropped. She couldn't believe her ears. "You will?"

"I will not keep you here if you do not wish to stay."

She stepped into his arms and hugged him. He ran a hand over her head and pressed his mouth against the side of her forehead. Her heart hammered loudly in her chest. She feigned excitement, acceptance, but it wouldn't be that simple. Nothing was with this man. And nobody escaped him.

* * *

It took an hour to recover the _iztlactli._ She hid the poison in the basement cupboard in her old home where she used to store all the harvested herbs and flowers from her garden. The few remaining jars inside the small storage unit were broken and full of rotted plants that emitted a variety of pungent smells. It took some time before someone appeared to help her freeze three rows packed tight with mason jars. She drew a seal over the doors to ensure the cupboard stayed closed.

By the time Kazuye wandered back out, the Eglantine Order's team of investigators had entered the division and quarantined the building, searching in earnest for any traces of _iztlactli_ only to come up empty-handed.

Kazuye caught sight of the Akram Queen's sister as she spoke to Sōsuke. She resembled the queen in almost every way, from the long black straight hair to the striking golden eyes to the sharply angled face, with the exception of an innate loveliness that her witch of a sister didn't possess.

She suspected Katō Tsuruko was the assigned leader of the team. Kazuye hid her presence and lingered behind the building, eavesdropping on the rest of the conversation.

"It's impolite to ask, but I must," Tsuruko said apologetically. "Do you know if Princess Xochiquetzal performed any spells last night?"

"She didn't," offered Sōsuke with a gentle smile. "Lady Kazuye hasn't recovered enough from her imprisonment to use even the most amateur defensive spellwork."

Tsuruko inclined her head. "Can you be certain that she didn't?"

"Lady Kazuye spent the night with me."

The implication caused Tsuruko some discomfort. "I'm sorry for prying, Captain Aizen." 

"Is there a reason for your insistence on her guilt? Did something occur?"

"We received a dense reading of _iztlactli_ last night"—Tsuruko ensured their surroundings were empty before she continued—"before a powerful curse broke through Ilhuicatl's barriers and struck down a member of my Order."

"How certain are you that Lady Kazuye had a part in it? She isn't capable of curses."

"If it had only been my colleague that had been found dead, I would only be here to investigate the missing _iztlactli_ , but it was a savage killing curse that took everyone that she held dear. Every member of her family was found dead in the same manner. Witnesses claim that it looked as though they were run through with a sword. The only nahualli capable of such horrific spellwork is Princess Xochiquetzal. She is the only one with the power, the means, and the skill."

Curses weren't taught because they were forbidden and laws existed to punish users, but she had an affinity for them. It was in her blood. Something dark whispered them to her—the words, the shape, the feel that spiritual energy needed to have when molded.

"It is a known fact that Lady Kazuye has never used a curse," replied Sōsuke. "This incident could very well mean that someone dangerous is targeting nahualli. Perhaps, this investigation is necessary elsewhere."

"We entertained the possibility and the case will be transferred to the proper authorities." She paused. "Captain Aizen, please expect them to turn up here when that does occur. They will want to confirm Princess Xochiquetzal's alibi."

"Thank you for the advanced notice."

She inclined her head. "Thank you for hosting us. We will take our leave now."

Kazuye joined him once he stood alone in the courtyard across the quarantined building.

"We need to eat," she announced. "We're having meat. A lot of it. Your treat."

Sōsuke smiled and gestured her forward. "After you."

Kazuye ate as much high-quality meat she could in the restaurant with Sōsuke. She delighted in the taste of the tender strips of beef cooking on the stove situated in the center of the table, her mouth watered with just the smell. She blended different sauces and ingredients to draw out the taste of the meat in her mouth, decorating it like the pearl in an oyster. She ordered beer to complement the food and avoided looking at Sōsuke the entire time, feeling his gaze trained on her. She couldn't imagine the thoughts running through his head.

She returned to Fifth Division with Sōsuke and lounged around near where he oversaw the training of his subordinates, offering them advice to better their zanjutsu. She watched him drowsily from her seat on a verandah and dozed off.

Kazuye woke some time later to the wary whispers of Sōsuke's subordinates and the realization that her claws clicked over the surface of the wood. She lazed in her transformed form, swept her tail over the floorboards.

She yawned. She didn't shift back until late in the evening as she waited in the darkness for Sōsuke to return. She listened to the soft whispers in the wind as the cold shadows wrapped around her and her mind went backward to the blood circle that she had drawn to the uttered incantation. _Bind my body to theirs and those they hold dear. Bind my soul to theirs. Link our fates._ She repeated it. Willed it to work with each reiteration.

Sōsuke entered, returned from a bath. Kazuye rolled over the messily lain futon and blinked up at him.

"Lie with me."

He towel-dried his hair and sat down at her side. Kazuye wrapped an arm around his waist and slid closer, her face pressed into his thigh. She inhaled the smell of clean linen and closed her eyes, her heart fluttering like a moth's wings just before they caught fire in the attractive flame that drew it in.

"Do you think that your enemies would weep over the attempts they make against you?" asked Sōsuke, his hand smoothing out her curls over her head.

"Why do you ask?" she questioned, though her stomach had sunken.

"Isn't that what's occupied your mind all day?"

She arched an eyebrow at him. "Are you sure you're not a mind reader?"

"You aren't particularly good at hiding your emotions, Lady Kazuye."

"How observant of you."

"You have been like this since you were a girl."

"I wasn't aware I was a boy now."

"Every time you do something that you feel was wrong, you isolate yourself as if that alone were enough to protect the next victim of your existence. You're too easily persuaded into guilt when you've done nothing wrong."

"This isn't what I wanted," she whispered, her voiced muffled into his clothes. "I never wanted to hurt anyone."

He patted her arm. "Do you think she hesitated when she sent that puppet to kill you? Did you think that she was saddened by the idea that her magic might kill you? These people have feared you since you were a bundle of cells in your mother's womb and despised you since the first breath you took."

"It doesn't give them the right to decide whether I live or die."

"So long as you pose a threat to the Akram Queen, you will always have enemies."

Droplets of water splattered over her arm.

"Didn't you say that you wouldn't let them trample over you?"

Kazuye sat up immediately. "I did, but this isn't what I wanted. I just wanted to be able to go outside without having to worry that someone was going to provoke or attack me. I don't want to kill them because they'll kill me first. I never wanted to hurt anyone."

"It is you or them. Life hasn't given you a third option."

She turned away. She understood that. "Even my grandmother told me to stand up to my enemies. Suffer every injustice. Endure it until you learned from it so that it never happens again." She recalled the strength in her grandmother's eyes as she spoke the words to her, her voice raspy and growing weaker as death drained her life. "And if that brings you enemies, you welcome them, and if evil knocks at your door, you open your heart to it. She said, do not dull your edge out of fear."

"Your grandmother was a wise woman."

Kazuye smiled. "She was."

She sank back into the futon, chasing thoughts of her grandmother from her mind before the nostalgia saddened her.

"Can I ask you something?"

Sōsuke lowered his eyes to her face. "Yes."

"Did you know about the Binding Ceremony?" she asked, curious.

"You didn't?"

She frowned. "Is that why you suggested marriage?"

"No." Sōsuke smiled. "Are you worried about it? Not everyone is required to commit to a Binding Ceremony."

"Did you know that it would make our powers useless against each other?"

"Do you want to use your powers against me?" he asked, brushing his finger against her cheek. The ghost of his touch lingered so sweetly on her flesh. "Is that what upsets you? Is hurting me a part of your escape plan?"

Kazuye exhaled, drawing away from him. "No."

"What distresses you?"

"If I had to say, marrying you."

He chuckled. "It would have delighted you not too long ago."

"Letting me rot in that prison for decades didn't necessarily charm me." She sat alone in that cell, a prisoner of her own gifts, wishing to see more than just Shinji's face. She lowered her eyes, her heart somber.

"Did you want me to visit you?"

Her eyes widened. She realized that now, so suddenly it ached in the marrow of her bones.

"It wouldn't have killed you."

"I thought your admiration was blinding. You viewed me as a savior—a god."

"Isn't that what you wanted?"

Sōsuke smiled, lifting her face and his hovered too close to her own that her body responded with a feeble skip of her heart. "Who knows."

The answer kept her on edge. "You do understand that Binding Ceremonies, if asked to commit to one, cannot be broken."

An easy smile smoothed out his features. "I don't mind."

"They're permanent. Forever. They do more than just bind us. Our spiritual anatomy would change."

"I am prepared for that."

His commitment warmed her, but she despised the naturality of her reaction.

"I suppose it is like you to go through great lengths to bind me to you," Kazuye huffed.

"It is binding for both parties," he reminded her.

"You would give yourself to me to have my power?" she teased, one of her fingers moved along his jaw.

"As you would give yourself to me to gain freedom."

Her heart banged against her chest.

"Yours is a unique gift," he said softly. "Tell me, what keeps you from the freedom you desire? If you want it badly enough, you can have it."

Kazuye softened. She didn't want to answer him. She didn't even want to entertain the thought of it. Her expression and heart had betrayed her so long ago that she remained mending the cracks. This man was all she had in this world. The one that held her secrets. Comforted her. Pretended to have affection for her. He wrapped her up in his lies and she rested comfortably in them, willing to sleep inside them for ages to come.

He wasn't wrong. With her power, she could leave Soul Society and erase all trace of her existence. She feared the result of such a wish. Her power was so volatile. It worked in mysterious ways. The more desire she had for it, the stronger the power, but if she wasn't careful, she would end up more alone. Somewhere far. In the Human World. Solitude. Just in a bigger cage.

He promised to let her go, but would he keep his word. Married or not.

Kazuye held his gaze through his glasses, his slowly drying hair pushed back out if his face, the ends dripping water that soaked into the neck of his robe.

"Will you kiss me now?"

"Yes," he replied, drawing her face mere inches from his own. "As much as you want."

* * *

**Will you kiss me now?** End

* * *


	8. A Declaration of War

Kazuye tapped the end of the pen over the table's surface, the soft sound rhythmic in the eerie silence of night. A tiny flame floated above the opened journal, casting heavy shadows underneath her eyes. She re-drew the curse upon both pages, listening to the whispers in the dark that recanted the invocation. She wrote it down, cramming pictographs and Japanese kanji within the bound circle array. She circled a few words, drawing arrows to them that linked to a list of different ways that a Nahuatl word could translate into Japanese because even the smallest details were imperative to the knowledge that powered the curse, such was the nature of nahualli magic.

She rubbed her forefinger and thumb together and sparked another flame to join the one floating in front of her and widened the range of their glow. She scratched an itch on the inside of her wrist where a black spot had formed and stared a while at it. She noticed it moments ago and had rubbed it, believing it to be dirt, but when it had clung stubbornly to her skin, she attempted to regenerate the skin cells seeing no difference. She marked it down as a result of the curse. Perhaps, a mistake.

Kazuye shook her head. _I wouldn't make a mistake._ She redirected her attention back to the page, unraveling the curse further by listing the different spells involved in the curse: soul-binding, amplification, mimicry, death sense, death manipulation, puppetry, spiritual energy transfer, no trace, etc. She accounted for all of the ingredients that went into the array. Blood sacrifice was the foundation in which she had constructed the curse.

Curses weren't taught. They were forbidden. Laws existed meant to penalize their use. One didn't cast curses. They built them like a home around its bearer. Curses trapped, ensnared, seduced. They were the gentle comfort of an embrace in a pool of writhing snakes.

Kazuye had never cursed another person. It never crossed her mind. Not even when all she could hear were her grandmother's final words advising her not to bow her head to those that sought to harm her. She was a Sayegh witch, the last royal in Soul Society's nahualli line, and while that name had once meant power when her grandmother had ruled, it meant nothing coming from her mouth. Even then, she had never wished to harm another—to curse another.

But…she grew weak…er…

…everyday.

Weaker.

Kazuye stopped her pen from moving and rose on her knees to the warmth of the flames. Slowly, she blew them out and the smoke lingered restlessly in the room as she returned to her futon, lying back into the plush pillows.

The closest she had gotten to a curse had been with Udagawa Eiki.

/

_Udagawa Eiki pushed the glass into her cheek until it tore through to the other side. Kazuye cut her tongue on its edge as she choked on her own blood, unable to breathe. Pain imprisoned her._

_Eiki's face above her blurred. The weight of his body pinned her down. His laughter ran like the hollow toll of a bell in the distance._

Stop.

_Eiki had cornered her in the hallway where she had dropped her books. She hadn't heard his approach, but his presence seeped into her skin as soon as his shadow eclipsed her crouched form. His spiritual pressure crushed her, made her bones creak like an old wooden door._

Stop.

_The glass cut deeper. She flinched, the plain jumped and blossomed along the edge of his weapon._

_He had wanted to show her a new ability. Just registered into the Nahualli Ability Compendium, he claimed, his mouth twisted into a frightening smile. He had come alone. This was unnatural. He thrived surrounded by others, his energy radiant as starlight and he shone when partnered with his usual groupies—those that joined in his cruel punishments and laughed along with him, basking in her tears…in the way that she raised her arms protectively over her head as though it would be enough to shield her from harm._

Stop.

_Eiki had fisted his hands until they whitened and he pulled his spiritual energy tight into his body before he released a tremor that shattered the glass around him. Startled, Kazuye had covered herself from the damage, but tiny sharps cut into her exposed skin. The resulting scratches burned with the flex of her muscles when she lowered her arms, just as one piece of glass zipped past the side of her face, biting deep into the skin and cutting away a whole chunk of her hair. The other pieces clattered to the ground like a curtain of rainfall shattering the loud drumming of her heart._

Stop it.

_He sauntered over. The lighter strands in his hair catching the light and burning bright as fire. His cocksure smile frightened her. He dipped down to the ground and took a shard in his hand. He took her by the nape, his grip hard, and the pointed end sank into her face as a crowd gathered. Not one tried to help. Not even her tears were enough to win their sympathy._

Please.

_He knocked her over and laughed as her back cracked over the glass. She inhaled sharply, attempting to turn when he kicked her over on her back. She groaned in agony, holding her stomach._

Stop it.

_Kazuye wanted it to end._

_"You're the only one that isn't laughing," said Eiki, crouched over her curled, trembling form. "I'll help you. Don't worry, Hisame, it'll only hurt for a second. Or not."_

_He carved deep into the skin until she gurgled her own blood._

**STOP!**

_Power coiled in her like new metal springs and the next shock of pain that rocked her unleashed it. The force hurled Eiki far from her body._

_A collective gasp sounded._

_Kazuye shook as she sat up and watched people gather in a half circle around them, blood poured heavily from her face and onto her lap, staining the green hakama of her uniform._

_Someone knelt by Eiki's side, shaking their head at the people, then turned to her with eyes as wide as a full moon._

_"He's dead."_

_"No." The word pushed past her lips a gurgled whisper as blood bubbled at the seam of her mouth. More people gathered, more eyes stared upon her in shock. Murmurs came to her like wisps of smoke, like haunting spirits. "He's not dead."_

_"You killed him! You murdered him!"_

_The people parted as Sōsuke stepped into view. He assessed the scene as he asked, "What happened here?"_

_Several students were quick to tell him. "She killed him! We all saw it! She cut herself and then did it! She sent him flying and when he landed, he was dead!"_

_"He's not dead!" she shouted, forcing herself onto her feet. She shoved aside the ones gathered around Eiki's lifeless form._

_She didn't kill him. She wanted him to stop, but not like this. She didn't want this. It was impossible. She didn't have that kind of power. She grew things. She took apart things. She attracted abilities. None like this._

_"He's not dead," she repeated and pounded on his chest with her bloody hands. "He's lying! He's faking it!"_

_Sōsuke grabbed her from under the arms and said, "You need to have that wound looked at, Lady Kazuye."_

_She jerked free of his grasp and slammed her fist over his chest._

_He was alive!_

_Eiki sucked in a cold breath, panicked at the sight of her and scrambled back into the legs of a male student. He let out a blood-curling scream that shook through every bone in her body._

_She opened her mouth, reaching her hand to him when another closed over her own. She lifted her face as Sōsuke wrapped an arm around her, clasping her elbow to lift her on her feet. She noticed a spark of interest in his eyes that startled her more than Eiki's motionless body turning cold as the spiritual energy rushed out of it._

\

Unable to sleep, Kazuye rose. She tugged on a coat over her sleeping robe and fastened a sash around her waist before heading to the door. At the entrance, she looked over her shoulder at the futon beside her. Empty. The coverlet had been pulled up neatly. Sōsuke had stepped out after she had pretended to sleep. She had listened to the creaks of the floorboards following his movements and the whispers of his clothing as he changed back into his shihakusho.

She exited quietly and followed a trail of moonlight to the center of the division. She found an empty bench to inhabit and leaned back into it, looking up into the starry sky. This wasn't the life she wanted. Not anything close to what she imagined as a child. To curse people to an early grave. Even as a means of defending herself. She never fought back. Or talked back. She took every insult and bore every hit. She cried into her hands in the corner of a downstairs closet, muffled the sounds on her palms, swallowed the aches that tickled the inside of her chest. She had often asked the shadows, _"why me?"_ and the dark that molded around her body whispered back, " _because you belong to me."_ And in the cold, uncomfortable space, surrounded by the smell of pine and clean towels, she felt comforted.

Kazuye dropped her gaze to her hands and stared into her palms. She had regained enough power to defeat low-level Hollows. She was perfectly capable of erecting defensive barriers to protect herself from low to mid-level spellwork. She had access to seven of seventeen Gifts and her control over them was stronger than it was when she first left the prison. She was able to perform simple tasks like scrying, channeling, and potion-making, among other general nahualli talents. Her root ability was slow to re-manifest. It would be the last thing that she would gain access to. That she knew.

She wondered if curseology counted as a gift. Were there different ways to cast? She needed more information than she had access to without her great-grandfather's grimoire on the subject, but she supposed the easiest solution would be in asking Yuuto for a favor. She needed to access the N.A.C. for information on ability distributions among Witchlines. Would curses and rituals fall under the Sayegh line as she theorized long ago.

Kazuye exhaled loudly, standing up. It was useless to sit around and do nothing. After the last failed attack, she expected that whoever else made an attempt would come up with something stronger. The last thing she wanted was to get mauled by more shadow puppets. She needed to put up a ward capable of detecting their presence if the concealment spellwork that hid their spiritual energy was so strong. She wished to avoid sustaining wounds as recovering drained more spiritual energy than she could recover in a day. A barrier was a reasonable move. It wouldn't arouse many suspicions as most nahualli were notorious for erecting defensive spheres around their territories. Of course, Fifth Division was the last thing she'd consider a home, but it was her current, though temporary residence, and she had to adapt for the time she had left to spend under Sōsuke's protection.

Kazuye walked along the outer walls that made up the division's perimeter and whispered an incantation under her breath, marking the area. She used the spirit particles that made up the structure as the source of continuous power in the barrier as most defensive spellwork required it. With a barrier in place, she'd be able to monitor everyone's movements. That'd definitely come in handy.

Sunrise came and went. Shinigami activity resumed in Fifth Division. People trained and chatted. They went out and hung out. They indulged in dates and late-night drinking until they returned stumbling home. The moon hit a peak, moonlight spread evenly among the buildings. It wasn't ripe for harvest, however, and the magical pests that surveilled her burned up on the netting cast around Fifth Division. Then, the sky brightened from violet to blue until it was the same shade of blue as the ocean in the Human World and the clouds were large as whales traversing the waters.

"Do you plan to come home?"

Kazuye snapped out of the trance that rooted her at the base of the wall and stared up at Sōsuke. "No."

"How long have you been awake?" he asked, his eyes wandered.

"When is the last time you saw me?"

Sōsuke's easy smile vanished and he extended his hand to her. "Come, the queen is coming."

Kazuye closed her eyes, sensing new energies approaching. "You want me present?"

"No, I need you near."

Kazuye stood and followed him closely, her gaze steady on the dirt smeared across the white robe. The closer the queen's energy was, the more nahualli presences she sensed around her. It wasn't unusual for a queen to bring an entourage of people wherever they traveled—guards and attendants, etc.—but this was a small army.

* * *

The rapids of spiritual energy electrified the air into a tightening web around Kazuye's body. Tono Sumika arrived to Fifth Division with a miniature army that patrolled the surroundings of the building where Sōsuke hosted her. Kazuye sat in the empty room adjacent to the sitting room where the queen sat across Sōsuke with two members of the Cypress Order standing stalwart outside the entrance, their hooded uniforms drawn low over their obscured faces.

Kazuye fixed her eyes on the spotless floorboards, her back to the shoji screens, and her hands folded neatly atop her lap. She wore the same weather-beaten robe, the mud smeared across her face dried and cracked. She hid her presence inside of a sphere that mimicked the spirit particles that made-up the room to continue with the illusion of the semi-private audience that the queen had requested to have with Sōsuke.

"Are you aware that there is an _ome **[1]** _level barrier around the division?" asked Tono Sumika, her voice soft and calculated. "It wasn't that long since it was first erected and it's scaled too fast in too little time for what we assume is a one-woman job."

"You will have to forgive Lady Kazuye," replied Sōsuke, sounding believably apologetic. "She is acting uncharacteristically paranoid as of late. I would not have allowed the barrier if I didn't think it helped her."

"Has she been behaving strangely?" asked Katō Tsuruko.

"Would you blame her if she were? Imprisoned and tortured for two decades because she was provoked until she lost control of her power?" questioned Sōsuke.

"Thousands were hurt in the incident, many of them killed," said the queen. "Her power is unnatural and she is incapable of controlling it."

"Having a child grow in an environment that constantly tells them that their natural gifts can't be control will develop a fear of them because others are scared of how they could potentially manifest." Kazuye raised her eyes as Sōsuke's voice enveloped her. "Isolation has always been the answer to the Kazuye problem, but did you ever consider what she could bring to the community as an asset? If you learned to embrace her power instead of fear it, treat her patiently and help her handle her own abilities. Look at what she has done in the span of three days, she's created an _ome_ level barrier on her own and if left to continue enchanting the perimeter, could cast something with that could rival the barrier around Ilhuicatl."

"It is that very power that has brought me to your barracks," stated Sumika. "I understand what she is capable of and the curse that claimed twenty-seven lives is something that only a witch of her background could have conjured."

"Lady Kazuye was with me on the night of the incident during the appearance of _iztlactli_. I have witnesses lined up to testify if you wish to escalate the case. They can attest to seeing us together that evening."

"Summon them," said Sumika. "I will determine the validity of this information."

"As you wish."

Sōsuke exited the room to do as Sumika requested and returned seconds later, informing the queen that his subordinates were being gathered. Sōsuke introduced over twenty of his subordinates after they Gin guided them into the room, himself and Ozawa Mayumi among them. All of them spoke true of their alibi, of having seen them spend the evening together, first going from one bar to another before splitting up, Gin and Mayumi going in one direction and Sōsuke and Kazuye headed in another, but everyone that was asked about the exact time when the malignant energy had appeared said that they had seen their captain together with Kazuye.

Sumika confirmed all of the accounts and had everyone dismissed with a new edge to her voice.

"What is your relationship to the princess?" asked Sumika. "You have been the subject of some unsavory rumors as of late and I'd like to confirm their legitimacy."

"Unsavory in what regard?" asked Sōsuke politely.

"Our princess is a known enchantress," replied Sumika, proud of her words. "She utilizes her abilities to draw men to her. We believe that she _lured_ you into a relationship."

"I can assure you that Lady Kazuye has not used her abilities on me," said Sōsuke. "Besides, this isn't the first time that we have been the subject of such speculation."

"Oh? So, it is speculation?"

"No, I plan to marry her."

Kazuye's control of her magic wavered with the flutter of her heart, but nobody noticed the sudden change in the atmosphere.

Tsuruko gasped.

"Excuse me?" questioned Sumika, incredulous. "You plan to marry her? What could you possibly gain from such an engagement? No, not you, this isn't something you concocted, it's all her. It's about what she gains from it, isn't it? Where is she? Bring her!"

Tsuruko stuttered as her voice rang. "My queen, I don't think that would solve anything—"

"Bring her here, now."

Sōsuke called Gin in and asked him to fetch her. Kazuye delayed her entrance by going around the entire building before sliding the shoji screen open where she was instantly subjected to the burning glare of the queen as she found a seat beside Sōsuke.

She bowed her head respectfully. "Did you call for me?"

"You plan to marry him?" asked Sumika, gesturing to Sōsuke.

"Yes."

"I will not allow it."

"The decision is ours," Sōsuke reminded.

"She is a nahualli princess—"

"In name only," interrupted Kazuye.

"Even so, you are the last royal and the final Sayegh nahualli. The subject of your marriage requires more time and thorough consideration." Sumika's brow furrowed, the density of her spiritual energy gave away her reluctance on the subject. "It cannot be settled over the course of mere months, especially after your release. It doesn't look right. You're clearly up to something and you're manipulating Captain Aizen to get it. Have you no shame? You receive a second chance using gods knows what means and you're squandering it. What are you up to?"

Kazuye bristled. "Why don't you just admit that you're actually afraid of what my marriage could do? What the continuation of my line could mean to your position? You're standing in my way because I'm the realest threat you've ever faced to your crown and you know that you can no longer control me."

Sumika snapped. "How dare you?"

Tsuruko wrapped her arms around her sister's waist to keep her from moving any closer to Kazuye, but even that could not stop her monstrous spiritual pressure from shaking down the entire building save the barrier that Kazuye erected around herself and Sōsuke.

"Who do you think you are?" demanded Sumika. "I'm queen! You do not speak to me in that manner!"

"Calm down, sister!" cried Tsuruko, tugging her backward.

"Please, your majesty," Sōsuke tried. "Sit and we can continue to discuss this further."

Kazuye stood up slowly with a smile on her face. "Fine, _your majesty_ , let's consider this engagement as my formal declaration of war against your position since no matter what I say or do, you will always feel threatened. You can reject our petition to marry, but as a nahualli princess, the final decision belongs to the Prophetic Sisters and I'm sure they'd be ecstatic about my marriage."

"Your Witchline cannot influence them! They're a neutral existence!" shouted Sumika, the weight of her power growing so heavy that Kazuye's barrier had begun to creak under its strain. "You will do as I say! I hold dominion of the nahualli! As long as you are nahualli, you are under my control!"

Kazuye exhaled slowly and as she did, released the full weight of her own spiritual pressure, allowing it to dwarf the queen's own until she and her sister were brought to their knees before her. 

The golden-eyed women lifted their faces, stricken with horror, to Kazuye's proud smile as she eased her spiritual energy, containing it in an instant. "You are queen because I allow it."

* * *

**A Declaration of War.** End

* * *

[1] **Ome** is the Nahuatl word for the number "2."


	9. Beasts and Cowards

The mid-afternoon sun warmed Kazuye's skin. Its gentle rays soaked in her brown skin, their heat radiating through the thin cotton robe that clothed her. Tiny beads of sweat formed across her temples and upper lip. Her thick black curls were knotted at the top of her head in a messy bun, but her nape felt sticky. She longed for a taste of cold water, the feel of ice cubes melting over her upper lip, the freeze along the inside of her throat. She craved the sweetness of ice cream. Strawberry flavored and melty, bits of strawberries crunching underneath its creamy surface.

Kazuye left her place in search of something close enough to satisfy her cravings. She wandered into the kitchen in one of the mesh halls in Fifth Division and explored the stores inside the refrigerated room while the staff awkwardly welcomed her, aware of her relationship with their captain. One drew her attention to a box of many flavored popsicles, opened it and presented it to her with a smile that warmed her.

"Take as many as you'd like," he said.

Kazuye took two with a cautious hand and an appreciative bow. "Thank you."

She exited as the cherry flavor exploded on her tongue, the ice-cold pop melting, and for a split instant considered that she was accepted when she heard a low whisper from within.

"Dunno how you can stand talking to her when she's got our own captain wrapped around her little finger."

"It's better to just do what she wants," said the man that had spoken to her kindly. "Gets rid of her faster."

Her heart twisted.

"Did you hear she threatened the Nahualli Queen? Something isn't right with that one."

The popsicle dripped red across her hand, leaving sticky droplets on the floor.

How foolish. To consider herself welcomed when all of these people worried that she manipulated their captain. That he could do no wrong and she was the fiend.

Stupid. All of them. Idiots.

Kazuye returned from washing her hands and the sight of Yuuto relieved her. He waited on the verandah across the office building with his arms folded across his chest and his gaze steady on her approach.

She immediately wanted to tell him about her meeting with the queen. He must have heard. Everyone else did.

"Did you hear—?"

His expression didn't brighten as it would normally. He knitted his eyebrows and his frown seeped as though he were restraining himself, but the words exploded from him like high speed projectiles straight through her pride. "Are you an idiot?"

Taken aback, she uttered, "What?"

"The Queen. You threatened her? You are queen because I allow it? How could you say such a thing? How could you be so utterly reckless?"

"She attacked me!" Kazuye defended.

"So, you challenge her authority? How are you any different from her when you're getting provoked over every little thing she says? Do you think that you'll make a better ruler behaving like a savage? You get hit so you hit back harder. You think that solves anything?"

Kazuye frowned, her hands fisted. "Then I should let her walk all over me? Stay quiet and bow my head? Let her provoke and abuse me however she pleases?"

Yuuto stepped down from the verandah and approached. She stepped back. He noticed. His expression softened. The distance between them wounded him, but she didn't care. She didn't want him near.

"Absolutely not. Never." He didn't push, rooting himself in place. "Recognize that she became queen of her own merit. It is not something that you decided. Using people's fear of you to amass and monopolize support was wrong, but utilizing fear as she does is no way to rule, Lady Hisame."

Kazuye felt her insides squirming. Her hands shook as the words barreled out of her mouth. "I have been on my best behavior since I left Ilhuicatl and she is still doing her utmost to condemn me! I am up to something. How could anyone want to be with a monster like me? I must be using some convoluted manipulation spellwork to convince Sōsuke to want to marry me! She rejected our petition and attacked us both! Should I have simply stood there and done nothing?"

The queen wouldn't be happy unless she was dead. Permanently out of her life. No threat to any. Just gone. A nightmare from decades past. Something dead. Turned to ashes.

Yuuto sighed, every muscle in his body slow to unwind. "I can't come close to understand what you've had to go through, but she's wrong for that. Fighting fire with fire won't solve anything. You need to be smarter. The barrier you set around the division is a good start if it didn't make her even more paranoid, but you have every right to defend yourself." He met her gaze and something in them lowered his tone, softened it. "You're a strong witch. You have supporters among the nahualli, not because of your Witchline, but because we witness the injustices committed against you. Ostracized, bullied, tortured, hated, and cursed. You were not even an hour old when you were sentenced to death. None of that is your fault. The adults around you should have been better. We should have spoken up. Protected you." He forced every word through his teeth, emotion barreling around inside of him. "We were cowards. I'm sorry." He paused. "But you are good and you have to be better than everyone that has ever let you down if you want to get anywhere."

She felt like an imbecile. A naïve idiot celebrating a stupid victory. She forced Sumika to her knees when she had lived dozens of years groveling at the queen's, begging through bloody teeth for mercy she'd never give.

"Be better?" she scoffed incredulously. "How has that ever helped me? I do nothing and she hurts me. I say nothing and she hurts me. I exist and she hurts me. I can either let her continue trying to stamp me out of existence or show her that I won't be her punching bag. There is no being better."

"You are only proving her right in retaliating! You're presenting yourself as the feared foe, the daughter of Mictlantecuhtli that our people have dreaded! How do you ever expect to rule if you're not bringing anything different to the playing field?" snapped Yuuto. "Our people will not follow another tyrant!"

"I don't want to be queen!" she shouted, so sharply it startled her. "I don't want to rule beasts and cowards!"

Yuuto's hurt flashed instantly across his face. He lowered his eyes and opened his mouth briefly, as though he had one last thing to say, but realizing that the rift between them had grown, he left.

She whirled around and took a single step forward, her other foot too heavy to lift. Her vision blurred and her tightened chest contracted painfully as she caught the sob that pushed past her lips in her cupped hands. She swallowed it down, forced it so far into her body it formed a black mass that cramped in her abdomen, snipping at her insides like a ravenous creature.

* * *

**Beasts and Cowards.** End


	10. Comfort

**_…late again…_ **

_The stray thought reached Kazuye as she entered the kitchen. Souko sat at the wooden table drinking a fragrant cup of lavender coffee, her pale purple hair sat twisted over her shoulder._

_"I wasn't_ that _late," stated Kazuye, snatching a piece of bread from the pantry and a jar of pomegranate marmalade from one of the cabinets. She lathered the jelly into the bread and took a bite of it, the sweetness melting her taste buds with delight._

_"I've asked you not to pry," warned Souko._

_"It's not like I'm doing it on purpose." Kazuye sat across her caretaker at the table. "And I wasn't late."_

_"We've been through this before," started Souko, exasperated about bringing it up again. "I understand that you want to spend every chance you get with Tsutsuji, but you cannot stay up past curfew. People will talk."_

_"Let them talk." Kazuye shrugged. "It's not as if their opinion of me will change. They hate me today; they'll hate me some more tomorrow."_

**_…and…never love her…_ **

_Kazuye flinched. A tiny ache exploded over her right temple, like a taut string snapping from the strain, and the resulting pulsation introduced the same thought into her mind a second time._

_"Are you putting thoughts in my head?" snapped Kazuye. "Do you think Enma isn't capable of loving me? They care about me and tell me every chance they get, so don't make assumptions just because you want to support Shinji on his dumb quest to keep me single for the rest of my life."_

_Souko's pale eyebrows furrowed and her voice rose, authoritative. "Control your power, Kazuye. I will not ask you a second time."_

_Kazuye let her bread fall onto the plate on the table and bit out, "I am in control."_

**_…keep her from love…_ **

_The low tenor of the voice ringing in her head was unfamiliar and disconcerting. Kazuye left her seat. "Who said that?" she demanded, pacing. "_ Keep her from love."

_Souko rose abruptly, eyes wide. "How do you know about that?"_

_"Who said it?"_

_"That isn't about you," reasoned Souko, but Kazuye sensed the escalation of her anxiety. Souko realized it immediately and measured her tone, speaking next with a slight apologetic tinge. The lavender haired caretaker returned to her seat. "Kazuye, please, sit with me. Let's just calm down."_

_Kazuye frowned. "I_ am _calm."_

_Souko gestured to the cushion opposite of her own. "Come."_

_"If you're going to talk badly about Enma, tell me now and I'll go."_

_"I don't plan to speak ill of Vice-Chief Tsutsuji."_

_Kazuye sat down slowly, unconvinced that it wouldn't become another lecture recommending that she wait a few more decades before she started to date. With the amount of time Shinji and Souko were spending together increasing, she doubted it could be anything else._

_Souko exhaled and the tension in her evaporated. "I'm not against you developing romantic feelings for others or acting on them."_

_"It just can't be Enma, is that it?"_

_"This is less about Enma and more about you."_

_Kazuye bristled. "What? So, is it that I'm un-dateable?"_

_"Let me finish. This is all new for me, too. I mean, one moment you're just a bubbly, curious girl and now you're falling in love." Souko tucked her hair behind her ears. "It's hard for me to see you all grown up, but please, don't think I'm saying any of this to stand between you and Tsutsuji. Be with them. It feels good to be liked by someone else, to develop a romantic bond with another human being. Bask in the love of your youth."_

_"_ But? _" added Kazuye, expecting it as Souko's pause prolonged._

_"Just…take care of yourself. Don't rush into things and trust your instinct. Don't do things because you feel obligated to do them to make your partner happy. There's nothing wrong with being a little selfish, either, so think about what you want. Communicate. It's important. Understand each other."_

_She was rambling._

_"Oh, and if it doesn't work out, don't be disappointed. Tsutsuji may be the one or they might not be."_

_Kazuye tilted her head. "What are you talking about? This has nothing to do with the last thoughts that reached me. Those were a memory, weren't they? I heard them in a different voice. What does that even mean?"_

_Souko smiled so sadly that all of Kazuye's suspicions melted away. "That wasn't about you. It was about me." She lowered her eyes to her joint hands rested on her lap. "Seeing you date. It reminded me of the past. Not all of us are destined to love or be loved. I don' know what else to say. I suppose I just want you to take care of yourself, especially your heart."_

\

Kazuye wandered beyond the security of Fifth Division. The later the hour became, the less she wished to return to Sōsuke's quarters. To find that he was not there, and if he was, encounter a mocking, unwelcoming smile. She didn't want to talk about the queen or speak about anything with him for that matter.

She had enough money on her to buy herself a drink and entered a bar as far from Fifth Division's headquarters as possible. She sat alone in the furthest stool at the bar counter and drank from a single bottle of sake, whose sweet taste lingered on the tip of her tongue. But it wasn't enough.

A man occupied the empty seat besides hers. "You're Lady Hisame, right?"

Kazuye glimpsed at him as she set her empty cup on the countertop. "What gave it away?"

He offered a sheepish grin. "You're as beautiful as they say."

His words stunned her.

"That must've sounded cheesy," he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. "Sorry."

"It was cheesy," she told him, "you should be sorry."

He laughed. "Well, can I get you another drink?"

Kazuye agreed, but remained guarded. His name was Suzuki. His mother was a nahualli. He said to explain his knowledge, thought it had been fairly obvious that her reputation had long ago gone beyond Ilhuicatl's walls. Conversation between them was dry. On the surface and slightly awkward. But he complimented her and made her heart flutter. His plain face became easier on the eyes the longer their encounter extended. His brown hair was growing back after he had cut it fairly short, the tips touched the top of his ears, and his eyes were as calming as still waters on a summer morning. He was a member of Tenth Division. He loved it there. Talked all about it, then stopped, embarrassed that he was boring her, but he fascinated her. The easiness of things. The fact that she had forgotten all about the queen and her fight with Yuuto. She had become someone new. Someone whose name did not factor in another's impressions of her.

She had forgotten Sōsuke.

"Sorry if this is inappropriate," he said, apologetic, but his gaze shot through her. "I know that you're seeing Captain Aizen."

"Why is it inappropriate? We're just talking."

He slid his hand across the space between them and touched her hand, surprised when she did not move it. Like she had welcomed his advance. "Because I don't want to talk."

Kazuye swallowed thickly. "Then, we should stop and go somewhere else."

There were plenty of wandering gazes in the bar. She doubted no one noticed her leave the establishment with Suzuki from Tenth Division. A tall, nondescript man with enough charm to entice her. She followed him home and wrapped around him when he kissed her.

Passion build up in her, but fizzled out fast. His hands were rough. His touches lingered. She ached for more. More than he brought her. She allowed him to indulge in her body, wondering as she watched him panting above her, sweat dripping from his scrunched-up face, if it would feel good. If there was something that she could do to feel better, but she stayed still on her back, her bones aching as he rocked back and forth on top of her.

She drew his attention with his name and held him tight around the neck. She used _Allure_ to soften his gaze and slow his sloppy movements. "Say you love me."

"I love you."

Her heart seized. Her cheeks flooded with color. "Again."

"I love you," he repeated. "I love you, Lady Hisame."

Over and over again. He said the words as she repeated the command. Once he tired out, she moved out from under him to dress. He asked her to stay, but she commanded him to forget.

Kazuye returned to Fifth Division as the sun rose from behind the tall buildings, blinding her with its radiant light. She entered Sōsuke's room while he dressed into his shihakusho and avoided his gaze.

"Did you enjoy yourself?" he asked.

She ignored him and wrapped herself up in his blankets, shuddering with every noiseless sob to leave her body. Engulfed in the fading warmth of his sheets and the smell of him mingling with Suzuki's strong cologne. It made her sick.

That evening and the next five that followed, she continued the routine that she had begun with Suzuki. Then moved on to the next person. A stupid man from Eleventh Division that liked it rough and left her bruises on her thighs that throbbed for several days after, turning purple with every night that she spent with him, listening to him whisper he loved her in a voice that didn't suit him. She switched him for softer hands and delicate touches, for feathered kisses that made her heart quiver, but the sweetness left her with a sour taste. There were plenty of lovers to follow until rumors of her affairs were loud enough to cause sympathy for Sōsuke. Betrayed by his fiancée.

But still, he said nothing. He watched her return to his room and curl under his blanket, smothered by their smell and heat. He left wordlessly as she reeled from the events of the prior night and wept.

No words.

Kazuye pressed her forehead to Sōsuke's back after he fastened the sash around his waist when she had grown tired of nothing happening.

"Comfort me."

He moved to pick up his haori and slid it on, smoothing it out over his arms. He turned to her as she steadied her gaze, searching his expression for even the slightest hint of rejection, but he smiled. Like he read her mind. As though he understood the strong emotions rushing through her better than she did.

Slowly, he raised her chin up, admiring her and rubbed his thumb across her bottom lip. She winced. "Why don't you lie down and sleep? I'll spend some time with you this afternoon."

He kissed her forehead and left her. Alone, uncomforted, and moved to tears.

She forwent meals and stayed in bed all day thinking of everything and nothing just the same. She stared at the walls and allowed her mind to grow blank. She slept in odd intervals. Listening to the sounds outside. The footsteps moving from one corridor to the next. To whispers and boisterous laughs. Winds blew gentle breezes across trees, picking leaves and blossoms from their stems and carrying them across the soft currents to the ground. Plants soaked in the sunlight and retreated by sundown. The dewy soil pushed tiny buds through the earth's surface, setting light vibrations across Soul Society.

And her control slipped. Overwhelmed by all things and not.

Sōsuke returned an eternity later. Once the energy had drained from her body and her limbs had grown heavy.

"Come," he said, holding a hand out for her to take.

She stared up at him, her face marked by the wrinkled pillow underneath it. "Where are we going?"

"To comfort you," he replied simply.

Kazuye took his hand.

* * *

The trickle of water coming from the faucet echoed in the bathroom. It was too small for them. Kazuye didn't want to be here with his fingers in her hair, massaging the shampoo into her scalp. She hated the kindness and gentleness, the easiness with which he accepted her request for comfort. Warm water showered down her body, washing out the soap from her curls.

Kazuye exhaled as his hands moved down her neck to her shoulders, a washcloth in one. Her skin tingled and she shifted, uncomfortably, aching to lean into his touch.

"Lady Kazuye," he said, softly tracing the faded outline of a bruise on her body. "This is in poor taste."

She jerked away, shielding her body. "Stop it."

"So many have come forward to ask me to reconsider our engagement," he continued. "Something about a long string of lovers you met in bars across Seireitei."

She lifted her face. "But you don't care about that."

"I trust that you have been discreet with your lovers and picked up after yourself.

"Doesn't it bother you?" she asked, her gaze on the floor.

The drippy faucet echoed in the bathroom, the timing of the water hitting the floor and her heart beating were simultaneous. The intervals between them growing wider and wider; her anxiety becoming more and more intense.

"Did Chief Akizuki upset you?" he asked, changing the subject.

Kazuye jerked away from the washcloth he tried to place on her back. "He said I was being like Sumika."

Sōsuke set the washcloth on the side of the tub. "The water should be warm now."

He stepped out of the bathroom and she wondered if all this hard work of his paid off somehow. Did he view her as an investment?

Kazuye sat in the water until it grew cold and went back to Sōsuke's room. He waited with warm tea. He helped dry her hair and wrapped her up in a soft blanket after she had dressed. He held her when she requested it, softly mumbled underneath her breath. And she allowed herself to be swept up in his actions.

"I shouldn't have let Sumika provoke me. It wasn't like me." Kazuye rested her head against his chest, comforted by the sound of his heart beating.

"Chief Akizuki was wrong in berating you. You did nothing wrong in defending yourself against her. It doesn't make you like her, but he wouldn't understand. He, like many others, expect you to remain a lost, helpless soul." As his words wound out like the careful notes in a lullaby, he ran his fingers through her drying hair. "They like this idea of shielding you as if you were a child. He doesn't see you for what you're capable of. He continues to view you for the uncontrolled power that you possessed as a girl."

Kazuye closed her eyes. "I thought he believed in me."

"He believes in the idea of you," he replied, holding her close. "In the continuation of the Sayegh Witchline and your rise to power. You appear to have become a beacon to those unhappy under current leadership. You have a strong claim to the position and unmatched abilities. If you rose up to challenge Sumika at the peak of your power, you can defeat her, but you don't want that."

"Why should I rule them when they turned their backs on me?" asked Kazuye, drawing away from him. "They gave Sumika her crown and should face their own consequences. I have no intention of saving them."

"Nor should you feel guilty over it."

Kazuye slid further away from him. She had grown too comfortable. "No matter what, there's someone that wants to use me, isn't that so?"

Sōsuke grinned. "Ours is a mutual arrangement. I had you released, I'm allowing you to heal and amass power, I'm salvaging your reputation, and I'm helping you leave."

A prickle in the center of her belly made her flinch. "I know what I'm getting out of it, but how are you benefiting?"

He took her face in his hands, pulling her close enough to feel his breath rolling out in gentle waves across her chin. "Perhaps, I did not want to be without you any longer."

Stunned, Kazuye accepted the press of his lips and the heat seeping through the thin fabric of her robe from the hand he placed on the small of her back. Flushed and desperately, she took his face in her hands and tilted her head, kissing him hard. She had fallen so tragically that she never noticed it before and hated the very thought of it as she discarded it from her mind, basking in his rare reciprocation. Kissing her until her lips ached and bruised, whispering against her skin as his fingers ghosted the curve of her spine.

This man was all that she had. All she might ever have. And it terrified her to feel so comforted

* * *

  **Comfort.** End

* * *

 


	11. Sacrilege

Kazuye resisted Sōsuke's attempt to undo the sash of her robe, holding his hands in place as he stared down at her, his expression unreadable. She accepted others without a second thought, focused almost exclusively in the satisfaction of their desire, keen on their want of her. Never had she engaged with another in a way that she had felt the act to be as good as the smutty books she read had promised. Some were quick. Some were rough and left marks. Others were confused and fumbling. Many were sloppy and selfish. Romance novels promised sex felt better with mutual love involved, but there was none of that here. Whatever confused emotion trapped in her ribcage wanted to be was nothing at all like Sōsuke's intentions. He did not love her, nor would he. Why should he? So, was this his desire coming to the surface? Did he simply want her? Would he have her for the easy fact that he could? Had he assumed this was the comfort she needed or decided that it was?

The answers to those questions scared her.

She slept with many people before tonight. Switching lovers at the earliest convenience. Whenever it stabbed at her how pathetic she was for making them say they loved her. Empty words to warm her turned to stone faster than she could enjoy them.

"Do you want to stop?" he asked, retreating.

Kazuye held onto him. She didn't know what to do or say, ashamed instantly by the fading marks on her body. She wished he wouldn't have to see them as she lowered her gaze. She almost uttered an apology, but caught herself before she had, aware that it would reflect an unintentional rejection. "No." 

She released him and undid the sash of her robe, removing the soft fabric from her body. His gaze never wandered, it held her eyes steadily, and it made her more anxious.

His cold hand on her waist startled her before he mended the shape of his lips over hers. She grew accustomed to his icy touch through the distraction of his mouth. The slow, dizzying way he moved it against hers as though he savored every second of sensuous exploration. He parted her lips with desire and her eagerness begun to show in the push of her body, in craving to taste him further. Her skin flushed as she took a breath and he kissed down her neck.

She wanted more. To writhe underneath him in pleasure. To succumb to it until her mind was a blank canvas, her troubles an evaporating mist. She sought to touch him, to map out the broadness of his back with her hands, and trap his body between her thighs.

Kazuye panted. Gods. She felt him hard on her leg as his open-mouthed kisses moved from her breasts to her abdomen along with his hands memorizing the shape of her hips. She gasped when he pressed his mouth to her mons, and panicked, she stopped him with a loud squeak, "Wait!"

He lifted his head and smiled. "Have you changed your mind?"

"No, no, you just don't need to do that." Her face burned bright, horrified by the thought of admitting that this was new to her. "We can just…do it."

"Nobody has done this for you?" he asked, his voice soft and teasing. The warm breath on her sensitive flesh.

She swallowed thickly, hyperaware of the heat of the hand splayed over her thigh and the sway of his thumb across her burning flesh. "No."

"Lie back."

She did.

The first kiss he gave her made her gasp, surprised by his hot mouth on her sensitive skin. She gripped the wrinkled blanket under her body as he spread her and delved deeper, his tongue exploring her. He played her like a skilled musician plucked the strings of their instrument to create a lovely melody, one that she expressed with her soft, broken moans.

Kazuye had never experienced this before. She relaxed under his skillful teasing. He tasted her deeply, so intimately, that she bloomed for him, bright red and wanton, and his kissed grew hungrier the more patient she was until she sensed her pleasure wracking through her like an underwater heartbeat, pulsing from deep inside her to the rest of her.

She moved her hips, but he steadied her, the vibrations of his commanding voice shuddering through her. Her toes curled as he drank of her. Her fingers tangled in his hair as the scream shook her. He kept going, focusing on the hypersensitive clit until her orgasm erupted in her. The quivering still in possession of her when Sōsuke rose up to kiss her, her taste tart on his tongue, and pressed his fingers into her pliant insides. She moaned into his mouth, her entrance sensitive, wet, and swollen with want.

"I can't," she whispered, the overstimulation blurring her vision. "Sōsuke, I can't."

"Savor it," he replied, his voice a low rumble against her skin. His fingers plunged deeper into her, curving inside of her tightening insides. The wet sounds filled the room alongside her voice. He pressed his mouth to her breast, rolling her erect nipple over his tongue.

She was close again. The pleasure beginning to drive her wild, unable to lie still. She writhed against his firm grip and cried out between pants. He lavished the same attentions to her other breast as he fingered her faster.

"Sōsuke, there. It feels good there."

He kissed her again to silence her and removed his fingers from within her to rub her aching clit. She gasped, moving as though she wanted to escape the claws of the overwhelming pleasure possessing her body, setting her alight like thousands of floating lanterns on water. She tried to keep quiet, hold back the need to scream out. She clung to him, repeated his name like an incantation. She had never felt like this before. She had never enjoyed it before.

People were selfish. They took from her. She let them. Indulge in her. To be desired was an eye-opening experience. The simple fact that someone wished to spend any time with her, more so in an intimate fashion that Souko had often described as an act done by people that loved each other. Of course, she recognized that that was her way to appeal to Kazuye's romantic sensibilities as a young girl. Kazuye learned later, as an adult, with Enma, with those that followed, that sex was a physical act meant to feel good. It didn't always involve feelings, but when it did, it was supposed to feel better…and she refused to acknowledge even the smallest idea of emotions existing between her and Sōsuke. Theirs was a mutual agreement to bind their lives together in wedlock to further his plans and serve her escape.

Perhaps, those that had come before her were subpar lovers and Sōsuke understood what he was doing. It certainly felt like he did as he elicited another groan from her, her next orgasm stirring like the onset of a tempest. His long, skillful fingers slowed in their rhythm as the muscles around them begun to contract.

He kissed her deeply, his body hovering above hers. Her skin perspired, itching against the cotton fabric of his robe. She reached down for his sash, but he took her hand and pinned it above her head. "Not yet," he said against her lips, the tenderness of his tone made her melt. "You have to come first."

Sōsuke opened her up with his fingers, prepared her, drew her into agonizing pleasures until she orgasmed a second time. The usual pleasures that she had familiarized with were associated with the friction of her body joined with another's in a way that stimulated her clit or even her own incentive. She learned to enjoy sex by helping herself get herself close enough to orgasm, but shy away from the edge. Sōsuke had given her no time to hesitate. By the time the build-up had guided her to that cliff, he had pushed her from it and the waves of heat that resulted from the fall rattled through her. She had never felt anything like it. The only thoughts in her mind were praises, but she refused to speak them aloud.

Her insides tingled. Her chest rose and fell with each deep breath that she took. Spasms went through her in unpredictable intervals of rest as Sōsuke removed his robe, the outline of his body shinning under the high, bright moon flooding his bedroom with its light. He set aside his glasses, the frames had begun to fog up from the heat radiating between them. She touched the flat, muscled plains of his chest with the tips of her fingers and sat up, her heart skipping a beat at the sight of his engorged cock, throbbing and dripping pre-cum.

Kazuye pushed her hair from her face and leaned forward, tempted to lick the bead of cum on the crown, but he stopped her. "There will be time for that another day," he said, his voice husky. "I want to be inside of you."

She flushed. He took her onto his lap, his hands splayed over her ass. He spread her open slowly as he filled her inch by agonizing inch. She felt him, throbbing inside her sensitive insides, sliding with ease into the deepest part of her. He grasped her waist and thrust in her shallowly. She felt it all over, from the tops of her ears to the tips of her toes.

She never realized how much she wanted him until he was inside of her, moving measuredly, stirring her up. Entrancing her with a rhythm that brought her to ecstasy. He touched her as though he had years of experience in appreciating her body. His gentleness interlaced with an insatiable lust that made his thrusts tender, but hard. Shallow, but far-reaching.

Kazuye wrapped her arms around his neck, buried her fingers in his back, and matched his thrusts with a groan.

Sweat glistened off their moving bodies, the floorboards creaked underneath them, their skin slapped rhythmically. Her head dizzied, cheeks hot. She watched his face, unable to believe this was reality, mesmerized by his expression, by the concentration that knit his eyebrows, the lust that darkened his gaze. She felt his hands bruising her skin with their tightening grip.

She wondered if this was all a sham as she took control, moving up and down on his cock as he rested on his back, holding her hips, observing her. Memorizing every detail. His emotions unreadable, even in this vulnerable state. She didn't care. It was the furthest thing from her mind. This was real. There was no mistaking his hands on her body, the heat of his dick inside of her. He had never expressed any interest in her. Not even when she idolized him, when she'd do anything for him out of love. Back then, she figured this would have been impossible for her. Stand by him, yes. Share his bed, welcome him into her body, no. Never. She would have defiled him. The purity of him. That which the naïve often associate with a God. That they are great and pure and incapable of stain.

Sex with him was sacrilege. Yet it felt right.

What had she done?

What should she have done? And where had her pride gone?

Sōsuke took her numerous times that evening and afraid that it would be a once in a lifetime occurrence, Kazuye did not allow her exhaustion to deter her enjoyment. Halfway through the last session, her body was so sensitive to his touch, her sex so sore, that his long, gentle thrusts were enough to make her orgasm. Her nipples ached, her breasts tender. Her insides were a pit of melty lava. Yet when he asked if she wanted to stop, she shook her head breathlessly, barely able to link syllables into words, and guided his cock back inside of her.

"Again," she would utter.

And he obliged, wrapping her back up in his arms and kissing her hard. 

* * *

**Sacrilege.** End

* * *

 


	12. Morning

Kazuye woke the following morning as Sōsuke prepared to leave and felt a wave of shame consume her with thoughts of last night. She had plans to collect more _iztlactli_ before meeting with Mayuri for his next experiment, but she didn't have the energy. She pulled the blankets higher over her head and curled up. She wanted to melt into the ground, her insides ached. Desire dried cold on her skin 

Even now, she felt his hands on her skin, warm and firm. He touched her in ways others had never, their hands rough and lacking tenderness.

She sealed her eyes shut and cleared her mind of those thoughts. It wasn't affection. He understood how to control her. She knew this and she fell for it time and again, so simply.

She stayed in bed all day and slept until her dreams liquified all her memories of yesterday, sending them down a drain to oblivion. But no matter how she tried to rid herself of them, they reemerged when she found peace of mind and she wiggled underneath sheets that smelled of Sōsuke. In a room perforated by his existence. This wasn't the ideal place to be, but she didn't want to go.

Unconsciously, she ran her own hands down the length of her body, her insides aching, her lips swollen and wet with desire that made her clasp her thighs tightly. Her hands were soft as her skin and didn't elicit a natural response for her, so she closed her eyes and imagined them to be someone else's. She pictured them larger and rough in texture as they roamed her body, lingering over her breasts, molding the small mounds to their palms, able to cup them well in their grip.

Her cheeks burned hot with embarrassment as her mind floated undisturbed, a part of her aware that Sōsuke had not yet exited the room that morning. The feeling of his eyes on her wriggling body under the sheets made her moan, the sound—sudden—cut through the silence. She pressed her fingers over her soft entrance and the noises that fell from her lips formed the syllables of his name. Bit by bit, circling the aching nub of her clit she twisted and searched the room, finding him, Sōsuke, watching her with a fascinated intensity while he fastened the white sash of his shihakusho.

"Touch me," she panted. "Sōsuke. Please. Oh." Pleasure build within her, pressing hard against her insides like a bomb about to explode. She rubbed harder, her legs falling wider apart under the blankets. She ached to feel the way she did with him. It felt so good. She had no words to piece together to describe it. No other person had given her the attention or the patience. All of her partners selfishly indulged in her body, took as they pleased, and left her not quite anywhere near release.

Sex was an uninteresting act. She had seen no point in it if it never felt good, but she tried to satisfy her previous partners. It seemed like something she had to get used to doing if she wanted to be in a happy relationship, and for that reason, she didn't mind it.

But this was something else completely. She noticed it from the first touch, from the first kiss he gave her—the one that melted her, made her knees weak. She channeled that energy in her exploration.

"Sōsuke," she begged. "Please."

He crouched down beside her and ran his knuckles gently over her cheek. She pressed her lips to his hand, mouth open as she held his gaze and uttered his name like something desperate but broken. She pleaded, unabashed, and gasped as his fingers grazed her neck, touched her collarbone, and slid underneath her robe.

"I'm so close, Sōsuke."

He smiled down at her. "I know."

She writhed as her nerve-endings blazed and moaned so loudly it startled her. She continued to rub her sore clit, her body twitching as the pressure became too overbearing. She couldn't stand it. Her insides contracted wildly and she wished to have felt something hard in her instead.

He cupped her breast and massaged it gently, running the nipple between his fingers, pinching lightly, thrilling in the soft flesh. The closer she was to orgasm, the closer his hand got to her mound, drawing circles over her lower abdomen.

Kazuye came with such force and abandon that she remained quiet atop the futon, breathing heavily and sweating, her eyes glazed slightly as Sōsuke's touch warmed her.

"You did good on your own," he said, teasing, "you didn't even need me."

She ran her fingers under his chin and raised her upper body on an elbow, whispering, "Kiss me."

"It would be unlike me to arrive late to my work," he replied, though he did not move.

"But it would suit your image to be swayed by the whims of your woman," she replied, moving his hand between her thighs, "so kiss me. Make me feel good again."

He chuckled and dipped his head down to press his mouth to hers. She parted her lips, eager for him, when the rush of footsteps called his attention from her. The shadow of a kneeling messenger appeared beyond the rice-paper shoji screen.

"Captain Aizen."

Sōsuke rose, straightening his clothes as she tugged the blanket around her before he opened the door. "Good morning."

The messenger presented a sealed envelope to him and bowed, rising from his position enough to leap up, disappearing onto his next task. Sōsuke slid the door shut and turned the envelop over to tear into the seal.

"What is it?" asked Kazuye, gathering her clothes to dress.

"The Akram Queen has been secluded to Ilhuicatl until a decision is made over what consequences she should face after attacking a captain," he said, reading off the report with nonchalance. "You have also been ordered to release the barrier you erected around this division."

Kazuye attempted to snatch the paper from him, but he held it out of her reach, smiling down at her. "Oh, and the Prophetic Sisters have scheduled us in for marriage consultation."

"That's fast. We haven't submitted any marriage registrations."

"Perhaps, your time is better suited to making such arrangements instead of wandering off to Twelfth Division after you take your barrier down."

Kazuye had almost let one night of passion erase the fact that this man aggravated her. "Don't think you're going to get away without doing none of the paperwork."

"I never assumed I would." Sōsuke tugged on his haori and opened the door. He kissed the center of her forehead. "Wash up and get dressed. You have a long day."

She touched her forehead after he walked away and peered outside. There were people watching. Of course, he would do something like this. She sighed. The bastard had her wrapped around his pinky and she was tempted to stay.

She slapped her cheeks hard. "Snap out of it."

* * *

**Morning.** End

* * *

 


	13. The Prophetic Sisters

Dozens of marriage registration forms existed and each one of them required a myriad of permissions from many important individuals across Soul Society. She supposed working on them meant that the courting period was over. Why wouldn't it be with the way Sōsuke had announced that he would marry her? People continued to express their concern over the situation—for his sake, of course—and questioned him, as politely as possible, if he was acting of his own free will and if he knew about the rumors of the lovers she had left behind, though none of them would come forward to say that she had been unfaithful.

"For the record, I only charmed one person into a relationship," Kazuye claimed, one index finger thrust in his face. "One. And it becomes a thing? That's what I'm famous for?"

"You're infamous for more than that," said Sōsuke, pushing her hand away, "but I do remember asking you to leave the boy alone. Oh, but what of your last string of lovers? Were any of them charmed?"

"Were you?" she asked, avoiding the question.

He merely smiled.

There were thousands of people that believed she manipulated Sōsuke with a love potion, but he dismissed the claims whenever concern reached him. Nobody believed him, but it eased their worry to see him smile as if she truly blessed him with her company. It annoyed her to see how easy it was for him to pretend to love her.

Kazuye sifted through the forms restlessly. "I know I said that the Prophetic Sisters were the ones that'd have to decide, but now I'm worried whether or not they'll agree to it. What if they want to order a Binding Ceremony for good measure? I'm sure they know that you're a conniving asshole that wants to rule Soul Society."

"I'm looking forward to meeting them," said Sōsuke, seated comfortably in the second-floor verandah with a view of his division, enjoying a cup of jasmine tea. Its enduring floral aura wrapped itself around her, mingling with all the other fragrances that she kept at bay. He had offered her a cup, but she preferred drinking it cold, leaving her to wait on the slow steam rising from its pale surface to dissipate to taste the honeysuckle-like fruitiness of the liquid punctuated by the jasmine she recalled from the first time that Sōsuke had made her a cup.

"What if they sell you out?"

"What if they don't?" he challenged. "Wouldn't you be curious to know why? If they were aware of my intentions and have not said anything in regards to them, wouldn't it be safe to say that I'm imperative to the world's plan? That I am meant to carry out my plans and become a god."

Kazuye rolled her eyes. He wasn't wrong. "Well, I have to turn in special papers to an office because I'm considered a high-ranking noble in Seireitei. We have to get approval from a committee as well. And you're captain-class, too, that's more paperwork." She hummed. "Then there's the actual registration for the marriage license."

"I already submitted that."

"What?" she snapped. "When?"

"The day after the queen's visit. I wanted to make my intentions clear."

"People already think I'm manipulating you, rushing the filing of the registration only proves them right," she grumbled. "I thought it would at least be a year before we went through with the marriage."

"It also ensures your protection against your enemies," he said. "Since rumors of our engagement stuck, you haven't encountered any misfortune, have you?"

"Don't take credit for my barrier."

"If you believe yourself capable of protecting yourself, we could postpone our plans until you feel comfortable."

"No, this is fine." Kazuye set her notepad atop her lap. "You're going to need permission from the Captain-Commander as well."

"I submitted the request with the registration and had the pleasure of running into your grandfather this morning." He searched her face for a hint of a reaction, one that she willingly gave with a furrow of her brow. "He offered me his blessing, though admitted this did surprise him."

Her heart pounded hard in her chest. "Is that all he said?"

"Would you like a look? The memory is fresh." He extended a hand to her and moved to him, almost slipping on the skirt of her kimono on her way.

She was on her knees in front of him, her hands cupped his face as she prepared. She exhaled. "Okay, are you thinking of it now?"

"Yes."

Kazuye leaned forward and pressed her forehead to his, _Glimpsing_ into the memory as he replayed it in his mind. The image unfurled in her own mind as though she were experiencing it through Sōsuke's eyes.

The Captain-Commander had intercepted his path, greetings were exchanged, and the permission had come up in conversation after he expressed his surprise. As he informed her, the old man did give his blessing.

_"I appreciate your blessing, Captain-Commander," said Sōsuke kindly._

_"I suppose this was the only reasonable outcome," continued the Captain-Commander. "You have always been able to control her."_

Kazuye's concentration waned as fury pulsed through her and she sank on her haunches with a click of her tongue. "Is that it? You were the reasonable choice because you can control me?"

"I let him know that I wasn't interested in controlling you."

"Oh?"

"I wanted him to know that I am quite eager about spending the rest of my life with you even while you have every intention of leaving me."

She rolled her eyes. "I hate how easily you can say these things."

Although, she truly hated the stab of guilt she felt at the mention of her own departure.

Sōsuke smiled, lifting her face by her chin. "It isn't a lie."

She pushed his hand away, moving from him. "Okay, so the queen already denied our marriage request and the Council is soon to follow, but there's still the Prophetic Sisters. However, if the Sisters don't approve the union, we'd go the unorthodox route and elope, which won't gain us any favor, but I suppose it is something that I would do." She paused. "The Sisters don't see anyone. We wouldn't be able to request an audience."

"We should expect good news."

The sound of approaching footsteps derailed their conversation from going any further and the wavering voice of a male shinigami rang, "Captain Aizen." His gaze found Kazuye's and the wrinkles on his brow relaxed. "Lady Hisame."

Sōsuke directed his gaze to the messenger as he paused feet away from him. She was curious about the sudden interruption. Sōsuke claimed he had the afternoon free after he taught his calligraphy class in the academy that morning, so she expected to monopolize him until evening.

"Chief Akizuki is requesting an audience with you, sir, and Lady Hisame."

Sōsuke looked to Kazuye. "Shall we receive him downstairs in a sitting room?"

She frowned. She wasn't ready to see Yuuto after he had snapped at her over her behavior.

Sōsuke instructed his shinigami on where to take Yuuto and once the messenger left, he turned to her. "Are you upset with him still?"

"Let's get this over with."

They received Yuuto in an open sitting room within the office building. Sōsuke and Yuuto were already seated in the room when Kazuye arrived with a fresh brew of black tea and cookies.

Kazuye took a seat beside Sōsuke as pleasantries were exchanged.

"I suppose it should be obvious as to why I'm here," said Yuuto.  "The Prophetic Sisters request an audience with the both of you, today. They said that it should be fine since both of your afternoons were free. I received special permission to escort you to them and, of course, Lady Hisame has special access to Ilhuicatl today."

Kazuye had been stunned by the sudden development. "Why today?"

Yuuto waved his hand dismissively. "The Sisters liked the feel of the evening…is what they said."

* * *

The Prophetic Sisters lived behind the grand limestone and jade temple of Tezcatlipoca. The traditional manor sat surrounded by fragrant plum trees that cast heavy shade along the white path to the gate where a violet-haired woman awaited them dressed in a crisp black kimono with a white sash.

"Welcome," she said and gestured them towards the opened gate through another canopy of tall trees with thick trunks. The bit of sunlight crashing in through the tangled branches illuminated the stone road and as they walked across toward the entrance of their manor, she imagined them as precious jewels sparkling under the finest light trying to outshine one another.

Yuuto thanked the woman, who kept her blue eyes steady on Kazuye. She had never met the woman before, but Souko told her long ago that her elder sister worked for the Prophetic Sisters. This woman resembled Souko, though she was much taller and shapely with wide, rounder hips. Their eyes were cat-like and the same deep blue. They shared the same straight nose and fuller upper lip.

Her name was Touko. She heard Yuuto call her as such when they first entered.

Touko and Yuuto did not accompany Kazuye and Sōsuke down the corridor. She walked on ahead and stopped before the sliding doors, above their wooden frames the symbols of each Witchline had been carved—the triskelion of the Sayegh, a stem of sage for the Akram, the Triple Goddess of the Rais, the Eye of Horus for the Zahir, the Mzali's triquetra, the Cho ku Rei of the Qasim, and finally, the laurel of the Nasr. Each symbol engraved all along the wood, repeated in a familiar pattern—one that kept the triskelion and triquetra in the center.

Kazuye started to kneel when a soft, feminine voice called out to her from within, "Don't, _tlahtohcacihuapilli **[1]**._"

"Enter, captain," another called.

The interior, though scarcely visible through the rice-paper doors, appeared dark and the musky scent of frankincense and copal seeped through the cracks.

Kazuye and Sōsuke entered.

The room was doused in candlelight and the shadows they cast upon the walls. Three women sat before an elaborate altar dedicated to Tezcatlipoca, his divinity represented in the form of a stone jaguar surrounded by jade and obsidian jewels. A silver bowl at his paws held fruit, a small gray mortar spilled frankincense in thick plumes of white smoke while another beside it burned copal incense. Yellow carnations surrounded an obsidian mirror among many floral and jewel offerings.

The Sisters bore similar features: the same button noses, round heavily lashed green eyes, hair a peculiar shade of gray starlight, and their skin was a shade of mocha coffee.

Kazuye and Sōsuke walked to the middle of the room to stand before the Sisters.

"Thank you for your time, Captain Aizen," the sister with the shortest hair said. She wrapped a silver string around her thumb and forefinger.

"Blessings for protecting our lamb," the prophet at the center added. Her hair was so long it curled on the floor. She held the ball of string that her sister organized.

"Tezcatlipoca blessed her once and Mictlantecuhtli did so twice," started the remaining sister. Her silver hair sat in a braid down her left shoulder. "She was born to rule alongside the Old God. The light to the shadow. Sun to the Moon. Welcome, _tlahtohcacihuapilli._ "

"I am Hotaru," began the shorthaired sister.

"Natsumi."

"Ayano," finished the woman with the plaited hair. She fixed her gaze on Sōsuke and she looked upon him as though she were seeing through him. "You were blessed, too, though not by our gods."

"None will stand for the union," said Natsumi.

"And yet we are eager for it," added Ayano.

"…and the fruit it will bear," finished Hotaru.

This was not Kazuye's day, not by a longshot. This was a ridiculous nightmare that she'd wake up from at any moment. In what universe did the Prophetic Sisters think it was a good idea to let them get married?

"Will it bring salvation or destruction?" asked Ayano.

"We are curious," said Hotaru.

"Thus, you have our blessing," the three echoed in unison.

Kazuye glimpsed in Sōsuke's direction, and though serious, he remained in character. The Sisters accepted the union. She didn't expect that. A part of her wanted to live through their silence—refuse the union, but never tell them why. That way the engagement would prolong indefinitely. No binding contract to tie her to him or him to her.

But they were curious.

"Marry him," advised Hotaru, her voice a soft echo in the dark.

"Love him."

"Enjoy the peace he gives you."'

Kazuye's heart fluttered and their gazes soften as they fell upon her. Somewhere in them she saw the pitiful creature that she was reflected clearly.

She shook her head, prepared to deny their words. She didn't want to marry him. She didn't want to love him. She didn't want him to give her peace. None of it. This wasn't it.

"Leave him or stay."

"Hate him."

"Do fate's bidding as you encounter it."

She parted her lips, prepared to question their echoing words. The strong scent of the frankincense clouding her mind.

"Why?"

"Why not? Rarely do beings like you find one another. So loved by creation yet so damned. Creatures of solitude and darkness."

"So rarely do you find one another and stand as equals. Most appear as enemies. Star-crossed to battle. One dies so the other may live."

Kazuye swallowed her question down, allowing their words to sink in deep into her body.

"Your journey has been difficult," started Natsumi.

"And more so it will be," added Ayano.

"But you are the last Sayegh Shaman and our only queen. Forgive us for the suffering that you have not yet lived, lamb."

"For the dark awaits you where the Old God resides." Ayano knotted the string in her hands and passed it onto Hotaru, who stared at it with a wry smile as though it held curious secrets that brought joy to her.

"Ah." Hotaru's voice echoed the idea that blinked in her head. "The Binding Ceremony."

The three sisters regarded each other with smiles.

"Wishcasting is such a wonderful Gift, but Illusion is just as well."

The Sisters nodded. "We will require it."

"Are you sure?" asked Kazuye.

Sōsuke's facade had not faltered when faced with their knowledge. Nobody knew the true ability of his zanpakutō. To hear it spoken aloud was alarming. Yet he did nothing.

"Absolutely."

Sōsuke offered Kazuye his hand. She took it and he looked upon the Sisters, inclining his head.

"Thank you for your audience," he said politely.

"Are you not curious enough to ask?"

"Of the path you have taken?"

"For the high ambitions you created."

"No," said Sōsuke simply. He looked at Kazuye. "Let us go, Lady Kazuye."

Kazuye did not follow. She held Sōsuke from leaving. Standing before them, she discovered her only opportunity to ask the question that had for years plagued her, clinging to her like a persistent nightmare.

"Why?" she uttered, not realizing her grip on Sōsuke's hand tightened. "Why do I exist? Why let me live all this time? Why so much suffering?"

The long pause before one answered was nerve-racking. She quivered, her voice broke halfway through her questions. She wanted to turn away, say forget it, and leave. Letting the questions fester in her heart.

"You are a treasure, a gift, a test."

"The sun, moon, and stars. Shadow and light and all that dwells between them."

"Suffering is your calling. The wrong choices have been made. So, you must decide now, will you save us or destroy us?"

"Or will you run away?" the three intoned together, the faded harmony of their voices crawling into the dark spaces of the room as the fires burning in Tezcatlipoca's shrine at their backs rose as if making the same inquiry.

A freezing cold clouded her, slid gently underneath the surface of her skin and enveloped her in its foreign embrace.

" _Come to me,_ " the black whispered in her ear and her body shuddered, like it would change shape against her will. Bones crunching, muscle quivering. " _Oh, Queen of Witches, stand with me._ "

* * *

**The Prophetic Sisters.** End

* * *

[1] **Tlahtohcacihuapilli** is the Nahuatl word for "princess." It is pronounced, "t-LAH-toe-ka-see-HWA-pea-LEE."


	14. Obligation

Kazuye sat with her cheek pressed against the window, reeling from her audience with the Prophetic Sisters. All of the marriage registrations had been submitted and approved. A date had been set and preparations for an intimate ceremony and modest reception were arranged, all courtesy of the Prophetic Sisters who offered to be the High Priestesses to the event. Touko had been the intermediary for it and it had grown increasingly awkward to be around her, knowing that she was the reason Souko had been disowned by her family—why they, who Souko had described as being so close, had stopped speaking, stopped visiting one another when their days felt long and their schedules empty, and why every heartbreak and joy that they experienced since they had silenced.

Sōsuke busied himself with work and continued his nefarious schemes between assignments and missions. He devoted numerous mornings to encouraging the practice of Kazuye's active abilities as a way of honing them—the focus had been on her element-based abilities that she could use as weapons against Hollow. They spent more time together to create that image of unity, of strange affection, and love. And to preserve some sense of her purity, she had agreed to move into an empty room, though innocence be damned, she spent more time in Sōsuke's bed, wrinkling the fabric of the futon under his back as he taught her new ways to feel pleasure.

On her own time, she continued to offer her body to Mayuri's research and when his attentions wandered, explored the building for her grimoires. However, even after she cast a scrying circle to locate them, pricking her index finger to use her blood connection as a base, nothing came up, and she started to consider the possibility that they were no longer in Soul Society. Kisuke must have taken them. Coming to this conclusion, she lessened her visits to Twelfth Division and focused entirely on healing. This didn't seem to bother the mad scientist. He appeared fairly satisfied with what she had given him, though, if she were honest, it did unnerve her a bit to have given him as much as she had. And there was more to give.

_"Don't forget,"_ Mayuri had told her on her way out of the lab, _"that you owe me more than one body."_

She wouldn't know where to start with making that a reality, nor did she have the intention to do so. She planned to leave before then.

Kazuye sighed.

"You don’t need to hole yourself up in here if you're so bored," said Gin, sitting in front of a short table with a cup of tea in his hand. "It ain't like the cap'n's keeping you captive."

"Sōsuke's my only friend."

"I thought I was your friend," said Gin, offended.

"I don't befriend people that try to kill me."

"Then why're you friends with the cap'n?"

"Because he hasn't tried to kill me yet."

"Yet?"

"I'm not an idiot." Kazuye turned to him, unimpressed by his reaction. "It's not like he won't try if he wants."

"You don't really think he'd kill his wife."

"Well, he won't be able to after the Binding Ceremony, so I suppose, I should keep my guard up until we tie the knot."

Gin blinked. "The what ceremony?"

"The Binding Ceremony. It's an archaic nahualli ritual that prioritizes the inheritance of power for the next generation, but it has one significant flaw because it makes the participants impervious to one another."

"Now, why would the cap'n agree to something like that?" Gin asked with a tilt of his head.

"Good question. Why don't you ask him?"

"Nah, you know he likes his secrets."

Kazuye glared at Gin. "What makes you think you're genuinely fooling him? He's not stupid."

"Ain't that the fun of it?" queried Gin, his grin widening.

"Sōsuke likes transparency," replied Kazuye, standing up. "If you're honest, he'll listen to you and do whatever he can to help you."

Gin rested his elbow on the table's surface and placed his chin on his upright palm. "Oh? Have you gone back to worshiping him? That'll make him happy."

Her brow furrowed. "I'm not one of his stupid followers. We have a deal."

"Following is our only option," said Gin. "If we are not that, then we are not useful, and without use, we are expendable. Your witchy gifts are the only things that'll keep you alive and my skill and obedience are what works for me. But we'll hit a wall. Eventually."

"Where are you getting at?"

"What are you gonna do when that happens?"

She frowned.

"How long do you think you have?" continued Gin, setting his cup down on the table. "It's been months and you haven’t granted a single wish. So, what are you good for if you can't even do what you were released to do?"

It took all of her willpower to contain the rage pulsing from her that a teeth-chattering shudder left her parted lips as the door slid open with one of the division's seated officers, apologizing profusely upon reading the mood and informed Gin that his guidance was needed in one of the training grounds

He rose from his seat and stepped out after the other officer, waving farewell to her with a sardonic grin. She eased the tension in her hands and winced when her fingertips singed holes into her robe, burning her skin.

* * *

"Lady Kazuye."

The meadow overlooking the cliffside staring outward into dozens of wooden homes across the middling districts of Rukongai boasted the protection of a Hollow-repellent barrier that she erected after her arrival. She turned away from the vastness of the sky and caught Sōsuke sidling up next to her, the breeze combing through his hair.

"It's odd for you to come all this way for nothing."

"The queen is facing serious consequences," he told her. "She is no longer allowed to leave Ilhuicatl without permission and she can't come near either of us. This should put you at ease."

"She must be seething."

It pleased her to hear that the queen found herself in a similar situation because of her own idiocy.

"That is not the worst of it."

Kazuye looked up at him. "It gets worse?"

"Indeed," he replied. "The Council, it appears, felt pressured by the queen's recent transgressions that they are considering new candidates for the position."

She deserved it. Kazuye felt no sympathy for her. When had the queen been compassionate to her?

"Surely, you didn't come all this way to tell me any of this?"

She kept her eyes downcast, searching between blades of grass to the pliant soil underneath. She felt the breeze move through her, like the wind whistled in a hollow skeleton, and the earth vibrated, resonated the feet of thousands of souls inhabiting Soul Society—as they ran, walked, stumbled, and crawled. She sensed Sōsuke's approach when he used _shunpo_ to reach her. She noted the first and the last step. Effortlessly.

"No, I did not." Sōsuke produced an opened envelope from the sleeve of his haori and presented it to her. "Nakajima Touko delivered this to me just now."

Kazuye snatched it from his hand and tore it open, reading the delicate script, reacting to the words "Binding Ceremony" with widening shock.

"It is unorthodox," he told her, "for the Binding Ceremony to be held before the marriage."

"This is for tomorrow," said Kazuye, unable to process the short amount of time given. "Preparations start tonight." Thinking on it briefly, she snapped at Sōsuke, who stared out into the tiny homes with a smile and a strange glimmer in his eyes, hidden by the glare of his glasses, but from her seat on the grass, the angle of where he stood allowed her to catch it. "And you better be there. I'm not going to go through this dumb ceremony with a Sōsuke dummy."

"I wouldn't miss it," he told her, stepping forward. "Don't stay out too long." 

* * *

Yuuto waited outside the gates to Fifth Division. She pulled on her friendliest smile to greet him.

"I'd hoped you had time today to talk," he said, his periwinkle-colored hair swept out of his face.

"If it's a quick bite, I don't mind," she replied.

They bought takoyaki from a nearby vendor and walked together, weaving through bursts of people and clouds of whispers. They drifted until the sound died down to the quiet chirp of nightcrawlers and the scuffle of their sandaled feet on the stone underneath.

Yuuto halted as she stuffed another ball of takoyaki into her mouth, savoring the sauce and soft exterior as she bit into it. She slowed down beside him.

"Is something wrong?"

"I'm sorry," he said.

"About?"

"I never got the opportunity to apologize. I felt like I should. I was too harsh."

Sōsuke's words echoed in her head. _"…He, like many others, expect you to remain a lost, helpless soul."_

Even so, her heart trembled. Eager to accept the apology. To forget they had the argument. To try to help him understand that she was not a little girl and that she didn't need saving. And that she wouldn't be queen of anything.

"Comparing you to Sumika was a mistake," he continued, finally looking at her instead of the ground. "You are nothing like her. She is chaos and the Council see it now. They wish to rectify her appointment."

Kazuye swallowed the food in her mouth.

Somehow, someway, Sōsuke was right.

"This is your chance, Lady Hisame," said Yuuto, approaching her so suddenly she stepped back. He grabbed her arms tight, holding her in place. "You're a powerful witch. The strongest in many generations. You can make a difference."

"No," she said firmly. "I stand by what I said before, and besides, I'm not qualified."

"If you confess your interest in the position, you will face little to no opposition. Qualifications be damned. You're the only one that can ascend."

_"He believes in the idea of you."_

Sōsuke was right. She was a fool to think his apology would lead to anything. It infuriated her.

"If you want changes, you put your name forward to replace Sumika," she snapped, letting the rest of her food fall to the ground between them. "I will not be your puppet."

Yuuto looked affronted. "That isn't what this is! You're the only one strong enough to do it. Queen is a title passed down to the most powerful nahualli in the community."

"Why is that my responsibility?" she snapped.

"Because you're the last Sayegh witch," replied Yuuto. "Your lineage carries meaning, it's synonymous with power, and like I said before, I'm not the only one willing to stand beside you. There are thousands of us that are unhappy with Sumika's leadership since your grandmother stepped down. They are waiting for you to step up and when you do, we will stand by your side. Now is the time for you to make the changes that are necessary for our survival—"

"No," she interjected, the hollow in her widened into an abyss. Her voice left her lips like a pop of sound and snatched Yuuto's attention instantly. She shook. In fury, with anxiety, shuddering with force. "I never asked to be a Sayegh, let alone the last of them. I never asked to be born. I was forced on my mother as I was forced onto this world and I have been hated for it. So, why do the nahualli have to be my responsibility? Because our gods blessed me with great power? Because I was born into the correct Witchline?"

Yuuto watched in quiet horror as if every one of her words pierced him, injected into him the reality of her existence.

"Those supporters, why should I be their hope? I don't want to rebel or fuel the embers of a rebellion that I was accused of long ago. Why should I be their hero? When did they ever champion me?" Her heart hammered wildly in her chest, the drumming so loud she felt it in her head. "I once thought that if I gave back to the nahualli somehow, that if I worked hard enough and bore with the humiliation and the battering at the Shinōreijutsuin I could carve a path toward acceptance. That I would graduate, join the Kidōshū, be among some of my people enough that they stopped fearing me that I could change their minds. That I could be a part of their world. But that was a stupid dream. None of that mattered. I was set up for failure from the start. Everyone knew that."

"They were afraid, Lady Hisame," Yuuto reasoned softly. "Sumika would have executed many of them for showing any support. Not everyone had the opportunity that I did."

"It changes nothing." Kazuye let out a shuddering breath. "Why should this be my obligation? Why does it need to be me? I ask you as I asked myself in captivity: why does it have to be the nahualli's responsibility to accept me? So, no, Yuuto, I won't rule the nahualli."

She took a step back, prepared to turn, but paused to look back at him. "Don't look for me again."

Kazuye walked away without turning back to the sound of her name. The Prophetic Sisters' words echoed from the back of her mind, whispering softly in her ears, their voices delicate as brittle glass: _"So, you must decide now: will you save us or destroy us? Or will you run away?"_

* * *

**Obligation.** End

* * *

 


	15. The Binding Ceremony

_"No matter what, there's someone that wants to use me…"_

Kazuye sobbed into her hands, the cries shuddering through her uncontrolled. Her heart squeezed tight and her stomach light, empty, as if nothing in the world could ever hope to fill it.

"Why do you cry, _tlahtohcacihuapilli_?"

The soft interjection of Nakajima Touko's voice startled her into a forced silence. She lifted her puffy, red-rimmed eyes to the violet-haired woman, and immediately started to dab the tears from her cheeks, ashamed to have been caught. To appear so weak.

She cleared her throat and sniffled. "I'm just so excited."

Touko brought her hand down with a flourish and made a handkerchief appear in her hand as she sank to her knees, taking her firmly by the chin to lift her face, surprising Kazuye. She gently dabbed the tears from her face as she shook her head.

"Souko never told you, did she?" asked Touko.

Disguising her sob as a complaint, Kazuye managed a whiny, "No."

"I'm an empath." Touko caught the remaining tears in the corner of Kazuye's eyes. "There is an ache in you, an expanding loneliness. Tonight is too special a night for you to feel so miserable."

Kazuye's emotions were in a strange flux. Startled by the revelation of her gift, Kazuye was guarded, very conscious of what she felt. She tried to find something neutral inside of her and settled on it, hoping that it would be enough to avoid the conversation.

"Come, let's get you freshened up."

Touko said nothing as she helped Kazuye scrub down in the private bath, treating her skin to various oil concoctions that made her skin fresh and buttery soft with a mixture of powerful floral fragrances. She gave her a scalp massage that curled her toes as she shampooed her hair and rubbed her shoulders after pointing out the knots in her muscles, pressing hard circles into her flesh as she undid them.

Kazuye was dressed in a fine, black silk kimono with a matching obi. The girls helping Touko excused themselves with a curt bow and exited the room as Touko seated herself behind Kazuye, gathering her brushed curls to part in three sections. Touko worked silently to plait Kazuye's hair.

She shyly observed Touko through the mirror, lowering her eyes to the ground when the violet-haired woman looked up. She reminded her of Souko. The deep concentration etched between her eyebrows, so focused on her task, so careful in gathering her curls and fixing them neatly as she wove white ribbons and fresh white flowers into her hair.

Souko never spoke of her family. She left them behind when they severed all connection to her, but occasionally, Kazuye caught them popping into her head. Growing up together with her poised older sister and her goofy younger brother. Souko missed them terribly. They existed like a never-healing ache in her chest.

"I'm sorry," said Kazuye.

"Why do you apologize?" asked Souko, her skillful hands never stilling.

"You were forced to sever contact with Souko because of me," replied Kazuye softly. "I caused your family a lot of heartache. It was selfish of me."

"Is that so?"

Kazuye swallowed thickly. "Y-Yes."

"Souko and I were present when the Prophetic Sisters first spoke your prophecy to your mother and grandmother. I remember the fear etched on Lady Chisaki's face and I thought that it must have been something terrible—for a child to be blessed by Mictlantecuhtli. The legends of Mictlantecuhtli's abominations were horror stories for me growing up. They were the boogeymen that our parents used to make sure we behaved well." Touko finished weaving and tied the end of the braid with a neat bow. "It was normal for us to be so afraid. For our people to be so frightened. So, when Lady Kano came to my family for assistance, my mother and father gave my siblings and I a choice as the Prophetic Sisters were also seeking new company: one would serve Lady Kano and her granddaughter and the other would serve the Sisters. Our brother was a late bloomer, so it could only be me or Souko. Knowing what we did, I thought Souko would beg me to go to the Sisters and I knew I would accept Lady Kano's proposition, but instead, she put her hand on my shoulder and said that I should go with the Sisters. When I asked why, she shrugged. She didn't know. It was years later when Lady Kano passed, when we expected her back with the rest of the Rais lent to her, that we were shocked to find that she planned to stay."

"I'm grateful that she did," Kazuye admitted. "I would've been lost without her."

"Yeah, she was too. Very grateful." Touko did not move from her seat behind her and watched Kazuye through the mirror. "But I didn't understand. My family did not either, so we gave her an ultimatum. She chose you. Do you know what she said? Lady Kazuye is all that is good in this world and you will regret turning your backs on her. Full of frustrated tears and shaking. She shouted it at the top of her lungs at all of us. I'll never forget the way she looked at us all, as if we had gone insane." Touko smiled lightly and Kazuye felt guilty for questioning its sincerity. "You have no reason to apologize to any of us. We cast her out. We should be apologizing to her. She chose to be with you and we turned our backs on her when we should have supported her, even if it meant making an enemy of the queen. She was my precious younger sister and I let her go because of the fear-mongering of a paranoid queen."

Kazuye raised her eyes, meeting Touko's gaze.

"I know now that she was right. The Prophetic Sisters are never wrong and they have loved you from the minute they spoke your name into the darkness. Our Lady Xochiquetzal." Touko placed her hands on Kazuye's quivering shoulders and her warmth anchored her. "Be happy with this man."

This Sisters had said something similar. _"Enjoy the peace he gives you."_

Touko helped Kazuye get on her feet and led her to the door. She let her know that she would be performing the ceremony as they stood in front of one another before the violet-haired woman surprised her by taking her face into her warm hands.

"Thank you, _tlahtohcacihuapilli_." She kissed the middle of her forehead. "Thank you for being Souko's family."

Just as Touko stepped out through the doors, Kazuye caught her by the wrist. Touko looked back, alarmed.

"I'm going to get her back," Kazuye vowed. "Wherever she is. I'll bring her home."

Touko smiled out of kindness, not belief. Her steady gaze remained misted by years of having mourned her lost sister. It made Kazuye wonder what Touko must have been told happened to Souko.

Kazuye caught a glimpse of herself in the tall mirror as she stepped closer to the door and walked backward into sight. She touched the tiny flowers in her hair in admiration and pulled the end of her braid over her shoulder, running her fingers along the ribbon woven into the strands. She ran her hands down her kimono, never before having sported one for a formal occasion. Her chest constricted. Her hands grew clammy.

A part of her wasn't ready for this. For any of it. For its significance.

Another viewed it as an allegiance. The best insurance available to have when it came to dealing with Sōsuke.

She was as afraid as she was jittery.

Kazuye took a deep breath before stepping out, following the path Touko had taken down the open-side verandah.

Sōsuke told her that the Binding Ceremony was a private affair. Attended by the couple and the nahualli performing it. The room in which it took place was blessed in the ways of their ancestors and protections were carved into the wooden frames. Apart from surface knowledge given to her, Kazuye looked forward to everything else involved in the process.

She entered the designated room and a waft of frankincense invaded her body. The thick incense filled her lungs as she breathed in and lightened the feeling in her chest. An elaborate circle had been drawn on the wooden floorboards. Japanese kanji and Nahuatl hieroglyphs were embedded into the piece—wound around the curved edges of the symbols or sandwiched between them. Their meanings spelled an ancient ritual. Magic as old as the nahualli's blessings. Few likely had the competence to perform this properly.

The heaviness of the atmosphere tightened her muscles. Breathing was hard.

Touko finished arranging dozens of candles around the ritual circle when she turned to face Kazuye, welcoming her with a nod.

As Kazuye finished circling the site, attempting to make sense of the magic interlaced on the wood, Sōsuke entered, dressed in only his shihakusho. He stepped in beside her as Touko finished crushing dried eucalyptus leaves into a bowl of greenish waters along with a pinch of colorful powders and approached them with the concoction.

She handed Kazuye a pin and Kazuye looked from it to the woman before Sōsuke took it from her to prick his finger. A bead of blood bubbled to the surface and he let it drop over the murky surface of the bowl water. Silently, Kazuye followed his lead, doing the same. She watched the red swirl into the liquid until it disappeared into a black whirl of finely-crushed powder and dried leaves, among the rising smells she caught a whiff of mint and the sting of alcohol.

"Let's begin," said Touko, stepping aside to gesture them into the circle. She continued to move around the room—setting things down and picking things up, reorganizing them, and making final adjustments—as Kazuye and Sōsuke entered the circle, careful not to knock anything over. Touko spoke loud enough to project her voice all around them. "The ceremony is a sacred life-long pact between spouses. The practice was created to preserve unique gifts like yours."

"My root ability is volatile," said Kazuye, capturing Touko's attention briefly.

"Yes, but it is also unique," Touko replied, pausing with a mortar in her hands expelling plumes of frankincense in front of her. The smell sickly sweet, but powerful, almost too much to inhale without coughing. "You are the first nahualli on record to have the ability to make wishes come true." She fixed her gaze on Sōsuke. "The Prophetic Sisters are interested in your zanpakutō as well."

"It is not nearly as wonderful as Lady Kazuye's ability," he replied politely.

"Why is the Binding Ceremony being held before the marriage?" asked Kazuye.

Touko walked around the circle once with the incense so the pale smoke wrapped around them. Kazuye's skin chilled. She sensed something strange in the mist, like a magic compelled its serpent-like movements. The hair on her nape rose. Every instinct in her body screamed at the top of its lungs as if something had finally clicked into place.

She grabbed Sōsuke's wrist. "Sōsuke."

Gently, he raised her face up by the chin. "What are you afraid of?"

Her hammering heart. So weak.

"I d-don't know."

Sōsuke leaned forward, her heart skipped a beat when his warm breath caressed her lips, and pressed his forehead to hers. The coolness of his skin spread across her own as her mouth trembled, her head unable to unscramble the worry knotted in her innards.

"I am incapable of harming you."

Her eyes widened as she drew back. The smile on his lips was soft, almost tender and full of affection.

"Bind yourself to me, Lady Kazuye, so that you may never be used against me."

She swallowed thickly, whispering, "Why would anyone think to use me against you?"

"Because you are my only weakness."

Kazuye flushed.

"Do you understand?" he asked, his voice low.

She nodded, feeling his lips against her temple as she lowered her gaze.

"Drink."

Touko held the concoction in front of them. Sōsuke took it first, gulped down twice, and turned to her with the bowl in his hands. She readily drank from it, swallowing the thick, bitter liquid. It went down like oatmeal and re-emerged on her tongue with a rotten aftertaste that made her gag.

No.

This wasn't normal.

"Sōsuke." She felt the dense liquid burn down her esophagus as she clung to him. It seemed to drain the energy from her legs and she sank to her knees, still she attempted to hold herself upright. This didn't feel right. The magical properties were strange. She should've questioned the ingredients from the start. "What is this?"

A warm wind set every wick alight and the candles burned bright among them as Touko settled down in front of the circle.

The smoke wrapped around Kazuye tight like a boa constrictor and paralyzed her as her head grew lighter, her vision starting to blur as fear gripped her heart. Touko began to chant and the words were all wrong. A mixture of Nahuatl and Japanese, everything backwards. This was something as old as it was forbidden.

Kazuye struggled. She kicked her feet to try and kick a candle over to shatter the ritual array, but no matter how hard she strained, she was unable to reach them. She focused her gaze on the concentrated Touko and shouted at her. "What are you doing? What is this? Touko!"

"You are a plague!" snapped Touko between chants. "Our people must be protected!"

Her heart sank. Betrayed. Again. She fell for it all again. Like a fool.

Sōsuke crouched down in front of her, the smile never fading from his lips. "Fear is for the weak-hearted, Lady Kazuye, and you must be strong."

"I trusted you," she whispered, teeth chattering loudly as her heart shattered. "You're all I have."

"A grave mistake on your behalf, but I need not remind you," he replied simply, "you are well aware."

Kazuye headbutt him, but he evaded her sluggish attempt with a chuckle and caught her in his arms as the circle began to glow a violent red. Rising from the symbols and words etched in it were tendrils of arms that wrapped around her, pinning her to the ground as she screamed. Sōsuke moved outside the circle as the black hands covered every inch of her body, dragging her hard into a burning darkness that seared at the surface of her skin. Her muted screams swallowed into the chasm of her heart 

* * *

**The Binding Ceremony.** End

* * *

 


	16. The Gate

_Rain pitter-pattered over the poppy-red umbrella that Sōsuke held over her head, the angle so generous to her that he bore the needle-cold sinking in through his shihakusho. The excess water cascaded down the tough ridges and soften the soil underneath her sinking feet. Her pink kimono skirt was smeared with mud and blood. Light breezes chilled her soaked skin, fresh bruises bloomed across her brown flesh, violet as wildflowers. Her painted lips swollen; her tongue numb._ _"Stand by me," he told her. "I will create a world that would never reject you."_ _Kazuye raised her face to him, finally looking away from Udagawa Eiki's twisted limbs buried shallowly in the earth. His brown eyes shone in earnest behind the frames of his glasses._

_"You will?" she whispered; her voice so soft the rain swallowed it up._

_"Yes." Sōsuke crouched down beside her, close enough that she felt the warmth of his body. He gently ran his thumb across the bruises on her right cheek. "I won't allow you to feel such pain again."_

_Tears blinded her as she leaned forward into his welcoming arms and a sob burst free of her. He wound his arms around her and patted the back of her head as he shushed her, soothed her. Into his shoulder she cried so powerfully that it shook her to the very core of her being and in between sobs, she admitted that she had been afraid._

_"I never wanted to hurt him," she told him. The rain soaked into her skin like ice-cold needles. She drew back, afraid that she had smeared the blood in her hands on his shihakusho and held them in front of her, the wounds inside her palms still stung, continued to flow red, dripping into the ground where it sprouted red poppies. As it left her body, so did her spiritual energy, untapped. "They're right. They must be. I should've never been born. I should've—"_

_Sōsuke took her cheeks in his hands, silencing her. "I'm happy you're alive, Kazuye."_

_Not long ago, she had said the same words to him not knowing that they were all she wanted to hear from him._

_Kazuye kissed him impulsively and jerked back as soon as reason returned to her, opening her mouth to apologize as she had once before, embarrassed by the look on the face of the man that she her heart ached for when he lowered his gaze to the ground and sighed, rubbing his hand over the nape of his neck, before he destroyed her with his words._

"I'm sorry, Lady Kazuye, I don't see you that way."

_The man's words echoed in her mind as the chill burrowed deep into her innards, but Sōsuke took her face in his hand and brought her mouth against his once more, deepening the kiss as the rain fell harder around them.  
_

\

Pretty words were Sōsuke's favorite weapon.

Kazuye groaned as she stirred from slumber, her body heavy as though it were recovering from a horrible hangover. The contents of her stomach swirled violently and when she startled herself into coughing fit because her throat was too dry, she turned over to hurl. A thick, slimy black liquid splattered across the wooden floorboards. She dry-heaved as she clawed her way to the door, attempting to feel despite the quiet environment around her. The hush made her question the sharpness of her senses. She used to feel the pulse of the earth underneath her feet, the wind rustling branches on her cheeks, the shift of the clouds on her fingertips, hear seeds rooting themselves, taste the bark of trees skewered by rampaging Hollow. Now, the cold of the floor seeped into her skin, her fingernails chipped on the wood, her feet propelled her forward into the sturdy frame of the sliding doors, and she rose with grand effort, barely able to catch her breath, tasting the bitter rot of the concoction that weakened her.

She couldn't sense any spiritual presences when she used to feel them all around her like the haunting of ghosts in an old house. She dug deep for even a miniscule amount of spiritual energy to spark a flame between her dry fingertips and panicked when she could access none.

Kazuye steadied herself on the threshold and walked forward, her body foreign to her. She advanced and fell. Picked herself up and went on. She walked long and laboriously, watching others ignore her—walk past her without so much as a glimpse in her direction—like she ceased to exist.

She shoved Gin out of her way as she entered Sōsuke's office and sank to her knees, hearing the lieutenant pause at her back with a humoring hum.

Sōsuke approached her from where he stood at the window facing his division and looked down on her as one might an insignificant existence. "I am surprised you could move," he said, his voice void of emotion. "You are more resilient than I gave you credit for."

"What did you do to me?" she yelled, fury bursting through her bloodstream. Every pump of her heart spread the wildfires of her rage.

"You may leave us, Gin," said Sōsuke. "She can do no harm in her current state."

Gin exited quietly; his footsteps quick to disappear down the hallway.

"What did you do?" she demanded. "What was that ceremony?"

"It was a Soul-Binding Ritual, as we agreed upon," he told her simply.

Touko's words came to mind, echoing in the back of her mind as though the power she put into them held dominion over her, rattling in her like a tail rattle warning of an oncoming attack. The glyphs and kanji contained within the ritual circle were not all familiar to her. Something had felt off. She should've gone then.

"She spoke a curse to me," hissed Kazuye. "Chants don't go backward unless they're curses. I'm not a fool, Sōsuke. What else was in that ritual?"

Sōsuke chuckled. "The ritual had an Ability-Stripping Core. It took me quite some time to unearth it from the Ilhuicatl's Archives."

Her breath caught in her throat as she uttered a guttural, "Why?"

"You are dangerous."

His words struck like a whip. The day he approached in her prison, he told her that he wanted her to use her powers. All of them. Do with them as she wished. Coached her not to fear them. Secured that she recovered them.

"Wishcasting is a wonderful ability, but as you said many times before, it is volatile and cannot be controlled." Sōsuke helped pick her up from the ground and she jerked away, his very touch burned her. Even as she slipped backward, he caught her, holding her at an angle off the floor. His hands wound tight around her arms, her skin tingling underneath his heat like millions of scrambling ants. "A power like that is detrimental to my success, so I arranged for your imprisonment and while you spent twenty years learning how to reconstruct your broken body, I learned as much as I could on how to turn you ordinary. Mostly, at least. The ritual needed to be remodeled to you and there aren't many brilliant casters like yourself capable of this type of magic, and even then, twenty years was not nearly enough to turn you human. You continue to exist here, after all. You can see us. But you are less of a witch now and more of a human."

She hated how every single word hurt. She had no one. This was all she had. This conniving madman. Her Morningstar.

Terror gripped her mercilessly and weakness pushed through her lips, a soft, defeated whisper full of doubt. "What now?"

"Do you still wish to go?" he asked. "Will you go and face your enemies? Or will you stay?"

"Stay?" She laughed, despite choking back tears. She shoved against him, stumbling but managing to stay on her feet. "With you?"

"I meant it when I said no harm would come to you."

"You took my powers!"

"It was painless."

"No!" she snapped, taking him by the haori. "You ripped them my entrails! Carved a deep hollow in me! Those are as much a part of me as your limbs are a part of you! How could you do this? I loved you!"

"Loved?" he said, advancing as she backed herself into a wall. He took her face in his hands as she pressed her palms into his chest, pushing weakly. "You don't believe that, truly. That you _loved_ me when you quiver so full of rage and cry so painfully because you feel this betrayal so keenly. It isn't a thing of the past. Not remnants of old, familiar loyalty. No, you are mine. You gave yourself to me. Will you deny that?"

She sobbed. How could she deny it? She had no strength. Her pride wounded, bleeding out in droves without the promise of healing.

"Stand by my side, Lady Kazuye," he whispered. "I will let no harm come to you."

"No!" She shoved him with as much strength as she could muster, managing to get out of his grasp. "I will _never_ forgive this!" She heaved, scrambling for words laced in iron—anything strong enough to make her weakened voice stop wavering, her foolish tears from betraying her idiotic heart any further. "If you've any hope to live long enough to achieve your ambitions, you'd better kill me now because I will not stop until I unravel this spellwork." She choked on her words, mouth full of cotton, and furiously wiped at her eyes while he watched her unfazed, the mocking smile never leaving his lips. "I will get my power back and I will hunt you…and there will be nothing to keep me from clawing you out of existence!"

Sōsuke's stepped forward and she jerked backward. He chuckled. "I will wait for you…if you survive."

Kazuye sped outside of the office building, crashing into people that likened to experience to a strange phenomenon. They didn't see her because she didn't exist in their eyes. Sōsuke erased her from existence in a way that she always thought she wanted, but this cut worse.

She exited the office building, crashing into the wooden railing and gagging. The stomach acid burned her tongue. Her stomach ached as she moved away, her knees trembling as she attempted to steady herself. She needed to leave. Go somewhere. Anywhere. Far from this damnable place.

Furious and despairing, she teetered down the steps of the verandah. Escape present on her mind. Ideas rushed to her. She knew where the Hell Butterflies were and if she took one, she could use it guide her through a Senkaimon. It'd take time for her to recover and it scared her to think about what she'd do until she did, but resolved that her best course of action would be to keep moving. Walk, stumble, crawl. It didn't matter what.

Just don't stop, she told herself.

Kazuye felt it long before she reached the end of the street and by that time, she had been ensnared in the powerful spiritual energy pulsing in the air like a wave of rotting garbage exuding extreme levels of heat. It paralyzed her where she stood and forced her to the ground as if she were groveling. She tried to rise, but the weight of it increased tenfold.

"What was it that you said before?" came the familiar, mocking voice of Sumika. "That I was queen because you allowed it? Is that what this is?"

She ground her teeth, unable to snap at the queen. Her finger buried deep into the concrete, leaving streaks of blood as she dragged her broken nails across. Dread pierced into her as Sumika's malignant energy crushed her, radiating all around her until the very floor under her started to quake and the people began to notice that something happened, though not one was aware.

What would she do? Cornered like a feral animal in the face of death. Never had she experienced such vulnerability since her imprisonment, cage in by spellwork and science whose only way of containing her was using her power against her. Back then, however, she had power.

No spiritual energy coursed through her. It was like all her roads had been blocked off.

Blood fell from her nose, the droplets bursting across the white ground underneath her in slow motion. The queen's spiritual pressure weighed her into the pale road until it started to crack like brittle glass, a fissure of power and weakness. She had forgotten how to breathe. Her vision doubled and blurred, but the ruby red of the blood dripping from the tip of her nose snapped her out of this strange trance. The helplessness melted away.

The Sayegh Witchline were skilled destroyers. Curseology was their forte. She didn't need her own spiritual energy to cast a curse. She had done it before with Sōsuke's.

Kazuye dropped down and waited, unmoving under the monstrous pressure attempting to bury her alive, when Sumika's energy broke, absorbed back into her body, as the queen advanced slowly, cautiously, to inspect her work with a cheerful hum.

The sound of a blade rasping alongside the inside of its scabbard reached her as the queen drew it and Kazuye's heart quickened.

_"It's in my blood."_

Many years ago, she had spoken those words to Kisuke and even though she was certain of their significance in Sayegh magic, she feared the potential spelled out in her great-grandfather's grimoire—a map of careful destruction, from large-scale curses to hexes, from human sacrifice to blood magic.

But she had not been afraid when she had cursed her attacker, nor had she minded the pain of Sōsuke's blade ripping through her heart. Something sinister had appealed to her. It had come down to her or them and she had chosen to survive.

As she always would.

Today, however, if she had any intention of surviving, she needed to die.

Sumika kicked her over while Kazuye pretended to have lost consciousness and brought the jagged dagger down like a hammer with the full force of her physical strength. It tore through her, flesh and bone, burrowed itself so deep inside of her that when she felt the hilt force its way in her guts, she let out an ear-splitting scream.

Sumika laughed. "You're as resilient as a cockroach, but tell me, dear _princess,_ how long can you stay alive as I start ripping you apart limb from limb?"

Kazuye vomited blood, choked on it. Swallowed it down as though it were an invasive parasite.

"I must thank Captain Aizen for his help," she said, surprising her. "Oh? You didn't know? We made a deal long ago. That if I gave him access to Ilhuicatl's Archives, he'd give me an opportunity to kill you." She laughed, so sinfully proud of her hurtful words, her golden eyes shining bright. "He is a difficult man to trust, but he did as promised. He even made it easy by stripping you of your powers. Know this, you cursed child. Death will welcome you. I'm sending you back to Mictlantecuhtli so that you may never hurt another again."

Sumika pressed her whole weight onto her, crushing her. Kazuye could barely breathe, wheezing as her writhing intestines swallowed the hilt and Sumika's fingers moved among them. Even tasting the rot of death rushing to embrace her into its cold arms, Kazuye clawed at the cement, fisting her tremulous hands.

"You are a curse," spat Sumika.

The words weren't unfamiliar, but her grandmother's dying whispers echoed stronger in the back of her mind. _Do not dull your blade out of fear._

Fear. She was afraid of dying. For the first time she realized that she was scared of the one thing that she believed was her only salvation.

Die here and she'd never get her power back. She'd let Sōsuke get away with making a fool of her again. He'd win whatever pathetic game they were playing. He'd do terrible things to this world to fashion one to his liking. She couldn't afford to be afraid, not when that meant proving to the world that she was some villain that had to be defeated. Never. She wanted to be good. She wished to help people. She longed for acceptance and love. She ached for peace. A quiet house by the sea blanketed by the joy of her own solitude. She had discarded her dreams long ago, but if she survived this, it wasn't over.

Kazuye mustered all the strength she had remaining in her body and punched Sumika across the face, catching her off-guard and knocking her over to the ground. The force and speed with which Kazuye rose, withstanding the paralyzing pain, allowed the dagger to exit only by passing through her. Blood poured freely from her wounds. She bore the excruciating pain. She had trained years to withstand the physical strain of her Qasim ability that this wasn't all that different. Tearing muscle and ligaments, feeling the bones in her joints scrape against one another—gnarled fingers and sore legs. One hole through the gut was nothing.

She kicked the queen across the face so hard that she hoped it knocked her out.

Kazuye toyed with the idea that she had succeeded because the queen had not followed her through Fifth Division's gates. She didn't need to keep her in sight to find her. Kazuye left a trail of blood—a small trace of her vanishing existence. She heaved and stumbled. She dragged her feet and coughed up more blood than she thought humanly possible. Her body numbed, but didn't repair. Her pain receptors were on fire. Burning with every hurried movement. Her vision was a blur of colors and no sense of where she would go to escape. Hell Butterflies be damned. She had to create her own gateway now and leave Soul Society. Disappear somewhere. Even if that meant surviving on her own. Or dying alone.

She held the gapping wound at her side, feeling the warm blood slither between her fingers.

Sayegh ritual arrays had different ranges. He great-grandfather created and tested most of them himself, those not handed down by past generations. There were dangerous things in that book of his that she studied with Kisuke's guidance. Curseology. Ritual. Sayegh blood. The destroyers.

Everything that she needed was in her blood.

Kazuye moved through a forest outside Seireitei and smeared dozens of trees in a clearing with her blood. She formed her array with droplets of blood, pushing her body to the brink. She had never opened a portal before. So, she created a multi-purpose circle. Knowledge, purpose, and feeling were the ingredients of a proper ritual array. She worked her way in. With bloody hands she drew symbols and wrote elegant glyphs and kanji characters. She'd taken spirit particles from the flora from within the array to power the magic.

Behind her a harsh gale sliced through hundreds of trees, forcing her to the ground in time to narrowly evade Sumika's powerful attack. Kazuye forced herself back onto her feet as the raven-haired queen stepped into the clearing with her. She saw four of her, breathing so haggardly that she could barely hear the woman sneer at her, but she had been banking on her arrival. Sumika had the power she needed for this, like Sōsuke had had the spiritual energy she required for her last curse.

The trees around the clearing were slow to fall in a circle around them, but their descents made the ground tremble as if in anticipation. Her pain escalated past numbing. A sinister chill crushed her ribcage as she watched the queen, carrying the bloodied dagger in one hand. A thin trail of blood fell from one side of her head, from the blow she had received, and she became fury. She had not seen the circle, or rather, she simply didn't care what a magic-less thing like her did.

"It's over."

"No, it's not."

Sumika's face darkened as blue lightning crackled in her hands. "How long do you think a powerless thing like you could survive me? I am the queen!"

Kazuye tackled Sumika to the ground before the queen had the opportunity to use any spellwork against her. She rose, her body ripping itself apart, and swung her fisted hand across Sumika's face. Again and again. She barreled her with ever-weakening punches until Sumika blasted her away with a wall of lightning.

The blood from her hands painted patterns on the queen's dignified face, but even then, she had not realized it.

Kazuye landed hard on a fallen tree and her back cracked. She strained to reach for the ground and activated her ritual by sucking the very life of the trees around her. Everything within the circle began to age and decay, wither and melt into the earth where it found its way to her, quickening the reconstruction of her body. She repaired the cells in her body to reform her organs and stitched herself up in an instant.

She repelled the queen's next lightning surge with a barrier that hurled the attack back at her, forcing Sumika into the air. She amassed the spiritual energy coursing through her body to constrict Sumika's moving, catching her as soon as she left the ground and dropped her back into the middle of her circle. She pinned her down with a wave of her hand, becoming the roots underground to loop around Sumika's arms to keep her movements and absorb her power.

Sumika's eyes widened in realization. "How are you doing this? Your powers were bound!"

"The power is in my blood," wheezed Kazuye, straddling the queen as the roots pinned her securely to the ground. She picked up her fallen dagger, exhausted. Aware that the power that she absorbed to repair her body was only a bandage. Everything had come together. She was no longer in danger of dying, but as soon as she burned through the spiritual energy in her body, it'd be over. "You shouldn't have come alone."

Kazuye drew a line from between her eyes to her hairline with a half circle passing through the middle, pointing upward. She did the same to Sumika, except with the half circle pointing downwards. The queen started to squirm, demanding that she reveal her intentions, but she knew them quite well. Kazuye tasted the fear in the air between them and death awaiting its prize.

"Stop!"

She chanted a three-lined verse that accelerated Sumika's fears, one that revealed the intention of the magic as the blood circle glowed an eerie black and red, like the smoke from a great fire rising from the decayed ground, and Sumika slowly shed her skin like a snake, thrashing among the powerful roots, screaming as she became a replica of her enemy. Kazuye pressed the tip of the dagger over Sumika's chest as her body concluded its transformation, her chest rose and fell laboriously. The queen stared at Kazuye with a hateful gaze…her eyes burning and pale green, like moss coated in morning dew.

The spiritual energy that she had taken from Sumika leaked out of her as though she were a broken faucet. It wouldn't last any longer than that of the trees.

"Goodbye, Sumika."

Kazuye pushed the jagged dagger deep into her heart and watched the life slide from Sumika's body, her eyes glazing just as she gave in, powerless to death.

A breeze swept through her ankles and turned her attention to the pale, luminescent Seireitei shining under the sun. It saddened her, though she had known little love there. She opened a Senkaimon and summoned a Hell's Butterfly with the last of Sumika's spiritual power.

Each step she took forward, she lost a part of herself as she entered a new, unknown world.

* * *

**The Gate**. End

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This marks the end of part 1 of Omixochitl. I'm currently writing the next part, so this series is currently on hiatus until I finish. I will be posting simultaneously when it comes back. Probably. Either that or I'm going to start another story in the Blood Magic, Bone Flower series.


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